Adrift: A True Story

Inspired by actual events, Adrift: A True Story follows Shailene Woodley’s Tami and Sam Claflin’s Richard as they agree to sail a yacht from Asia to North America – with a random (and deadly) storm leaving the ship incapacitated and forcing the couple to brave the elements along the way to safety. Director Baltasar Kormákur does an admittedly fantastic job of immediately capturing the viewer’s interest, as Adrift: A True Story kicks off with a striking in media res opening detailing Tami’s immediate, post-storm efforts at finding Claflin’s seemingly lost-at-sea figure. It’s an engrossing sequence that’s ultimately not terribly indicative of what subsequently follows, as Kormákur, along with scripters Aaron Kandell, Jordan Kandell, and David Branson Smith, offers up a slow-moving and awfully familiar tale of survival rife with competent yet unimpressive elements – with the somewhat hands-off feel compounded by one’s ongoing difficulties in wholeheartedly sympathizing with either of the central characters (ie both Woodley and Claflin are good here, certainly, but neither actor delivers what could reasonably be considered a dynamic or charismatic performance). And although the narrative does contain a small handful of overtly engrossing interludes (eg Tami attempts to wave down a passing freighter), Adrift: A True Story is, by and large, unable to carve out a place for itself within a subgenre brimming with similarly-themed fare – although, to be fair, the film’s final stretch manages to pack a far more pronounced emotional impact than one might’ve anticipated.

**1/2 out of ****