Adrift (2018)

ADRIFT  (2018)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Baltasar Kormákur
    Shailene Woodley, Sam Claflin, Grace Palmer,
    Jeffrey Thomas, Elizabeth Hawthorne
I suppose at this point, the movie all other lost-at-sea adventures should be compared to is the 2013 Robert Redford vehicle "All Is Lost". No backstory. No dialogue. Just one man in a broken boat in the middle of the ocean, alone. It doesn't get much more primal than that. "Adrift" starts out with two people on a boat - a young couple (Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin) sailing from Tahiti to San Diego. That's the plan, anyway, till the mother of all storms comes up and pulverizes them. It's a tense time on the water, based on a true story, with a sunny, down-to-earth performance by Woodley, who's equally convincing as a free-spirited vagabond and the battered, strung-out survivor of 40 days at sea. As the ordeal drags on, Woodley's not afraid to let herself look really rough, though you can't help wondering why a fair-haired girl in an open boat, in possession of a stylish, wide-brimmed hat to protect her from the sun, doesn't spend more time wearing the thing.