(1.5 / 4)
Adrift suffers from a misguided narrative structure, which diminishes a captivating true story about love and survival into a slog of dull and saccharine moments.
There is a scene towards the beginning of Baltasar Kormákur’s romantic drama Adrift in which Sam Claflin’s Richard Sharp is on his first date with Tami Oldham (Shailene Woodley) and he is asked to describe why he has devoted his life to sailing. After providing an impassioned explanation about how sailing fosters this intense feeling about being connected with nature, Richard apologizes and states that his answer must have sounded incredibly cheesy. This line proves to be prophetic regarding the film, as despite having all the makings of an epic romantic adventure, the amazing true story manages to come off as inauthentic and monotonous, due entirely to a costly narrative decision.
The tale chronicles Tami Oldham, a free-spirited young woman with a passion for sailing who finds herself in Tahiti in 1983 where she soon meets Richard Sharp, a sailor with whom she is naturally drawn to. The two quickly strike up a relationship thanks to their shared passion for sailing, and after several months of romantic bliss, Tami agrees to join Richard on an ambitious sailing expedition to travel all the way to California from Tahiti. Unfortunately, fate has other plans, as the two end up sailing directly into a catastrophic hurricane, leaving Richard severely injured and their ship completely destroyed. Seemingly at the mercy of nature, Tami must attempt to figure out a way to survive long enough in the hopes that she and Richard will somehow be rescued.
On paper this synopsis sounds like a thrilling story, however, the film makes the misguided decision to present the narrative in a non-linear fashion, so the film begins by depicting the aftermath of the accident rather than the chronological start of the story. I am generally not a fan of this storytelling technique, but I was willing to accept that it would work as an introductory scene, however, the film doubles down on this bad decision and continually oscillates between events before and after the accident. This narrative decision proves to be mostly pointless, as it hurts the film in a number of ways and seems to have been incorporated purely in service of a reveal towards the end of the film. A great deal of suspense from the story is immediately killed as the audience is presented with the worst possible scenario from the start, and what remains is merely learning how the characters arrived at this point and whether or not they will make it out alive, neither of which prove interesting enough to compensate for this decision.
In theory, the couple’s struggle to survive being stranded in the middle of the ocean could have been a fascinating development, but the film glosses over the details necessary for survival, and the audience is instead presented with endless sequences of Tami nursing Richard to health whilst they reminisce about the past. When one of the most harrowing obstacles for our protagonist is whether or not she will be willing to break her vow to remain a vegetarian when her life hinges on catching and eating fish, it is clear that the struggle being depicted isn’t sufficiently enthralling. Additionally, thanks again to the narrative, many of these scenes lack the proper foundation of allowing the audience to witness Tami and Richard’s relationship fully blooming. This lack of development results in Tami’s exchanges with Richard feeling hollow and cloying rather than sentimental when she is emphatically attempting to save her lover’s life.
Shailene Woodley, who is a fantastic actress and has turned in terrific performances in roles like The Spectacular Now and Big Little Lies, does her best, but even she is unable to overcome the fatal narrative decision. Due to the constant flashing back and forth between the two timelines, Woodley’s scenes in which she is struggling to survive come across as overdramatic as the audience has been unable to properly see the progression of how she and Richard degraded to this emaciated state. The result is that Tami’s reactions to commonplace objects and events like a jar of peanut butter or sudden rainfall seem exaggerated and almost comical when that was far from the intended effect.
Adrift does feature some enticing sequences, such as the visual effects depicting the enormity of the hurricane as well as some eye-catching visuals from filming in gorgeous locations. Additionally, the two leads are likeable and attractive, and if the story were presented in a linear fashion the film could have been truly captivating. However, as it stands Adrift is at best a decent Summer date movie, but beyond this it is a slog to get through. The film is so tedious that you will feel as though you are deteriorating along with these characters as you hold out for hope that someone will rescue you from sitting through the film until the end.
