2018, Dir Baltasar Kormakur, Sony Pictures, UK12, DVD, 92 min
It is with trepidation that the sailor approaches a sailing film. All too often realisms are compromised for the sake of safety, cost or general ignorance. Not so in Adrift, a life affirming, tragic and uplifting film based around a couple’s (played by Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin – above) struggle to survive on a wrecked sailing boat after being hit by Hurricane Raymond in the mid Pacific in 1983. From the first terrifying opening sequence and through the entire film the attention to detail was utterly unimpeachable. The reason behind this was that the director, Icelandic Baltasar Kormakur, an Olympic sailing contender and natural seaman, was the only person who could have made this film. In one instance during our interview he explained how he commendably fought the studio to film out on the open ocean so that the sea state had the right width of trough.
The film was shot miles offshore to create the right feel
Through the hardships of filming on board day after day he managed to extract convincing and career defining performances from both Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin, who spent so long on board they adopted the natural ways of a long term sailor. The director of photography Robert Richardson should see himself on the Oscars list for putting us in, on and immersed in the story as well as the sea that surrounds it; apparently they broke, or soaked, a lot of cameras. To put it simply, this is one of the best sailing films ever made.
Adrift opens in UK ciinemas tomorrow June 29 and you should definitely go and see it on the big screen.
See our interview with the director:
Review by Guy Venables
Of course it all begins swimmingly; British hunk meets Californian girl…
And sailing is great right?
That looks a bit menacing…
Didn’t sign up for this…
