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Woman against nature. He certainly has a ring, especially when a woman wins. But there are too few such stories in our popular culture, and certainly on our movie screens.
Enter "Adrift", based on the poignant story of Tami Oldham, who sailed from Tahiti to San Diego in 1983 with her fiancé, Richard Sharp, and ran into a brutal hurricane. Oldham wrote of the test – 41 days on the high seas in a damaged sailboat of 44 feet – in his book "Red Sky in Mourning", and if you have not read it yet, well: stop googling and watch the movie first. You will be happy that you do not know all the details in advance.
Initially, "Adrift" by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur ("Everest") has several things to do. First of all, Kormakur is a sailor for life, and he chose to film on the high seas off Fiji, giving the procedures an obvious visual urgency. Second, the story is simple and thrilling – because it's true. And third, Shailene Woodley, one of the most naturalistic young actresses working today, is hard not to root in any movie, and certainly here as Tami, a relaxed Californian suddenly caught in a basic battle for to survive.
The film could do better is to paint the characters with nuance and complexity. It's less necessary in water scenes – we have all the excitement we need there. But the scenes on earth seem rather superficial, if they are always pleasant and romantic (nothing wrong with watching two young people attracted and tanned falling in love.)
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We start with Tami who wakes up after an obvious disaster , the boat virtually destroyed. Stumbling into the wreckage, she arrives at the devastating realization that Richard (Sam Claflin), the most experienced sailor of the two, is nowhere to be seen.
Flashback to five months earlier, when Tami arrives in Tahiti, a 23- year-old free spirit with no clear life plans. All she wants to do is see the world. She gets a strange job at the marina, where one day she meets Richard, a handsome young Brit who has built his own boat and spends his life navigating.
These two beautiful creatures are immediately drawn to each other, and spend idyllic days sailing, cooking, drinking wine. Looking at the crimson sky one day, Tami proclaims that he is red. Richard corrects her quickly: Her "Beet-tingled pomegranate", OK, we understand why she falls in love.
Then an irresistible opportunity arises: An older couple wants Richard to come back from Tahiti to San Diego. The terms are too attractive to pbad. Tami overcomes his initial reluctance to bypbad his own independent journey, and they go into deep blue.
And then the disaster strikes, and suddenly these extremely capable people seem helpless in the face of the ferocity of nature. At the worst moment, Richard hangs up, and yells at Tami through the strong winds to go down below, where she will be safer.
The action alternates between happy scenes on Earth, and sea trial, which show Tami a way to prevent the boat from sinking, then pulling a seriously injured Richard from the waters and caring for her injuries while she tries to navigate, using nautical charts and her own desperate creativity. Field scenes provide some intermittent relief; on the other hand, they block the suspense.
The risky goal of the couple is to reach Hawaii, and Tami knows that if she makes a mistake, she will die. She must also understand how to ration fresh water and meager food supplies, which consist of sardines, spams, a pot of peanut butter. A committed vegetarian, she has to face the reality that if she can not kill and eat fish, she probably will not.
Woodley's honest and unsophisticated performance seems perfectly suited to the script of Aaron Kandell, Jordan Kandell and David Branson Smith. Claflin makes Richard a sensitive and daring romantic partner. The story is not complicated – it is not it either. Woman against sea. The woman triumphs. A story worthy of 2018.
"Adrift", an output of STX Entertainment, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America "for images of injury, perils, language, brief drug use, partial nudity and thematic elements. " Duration: 120 minutes Two and a half stars out of four.
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MPAA definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some documents may be inappropriate for children under 13 years old.
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Follow Jocelyn Noveck on Twitter at www.JocelynNoveckAP
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