Waking up and not knowing where you are is a frightening experience.
But if youre on a half capsized boat, in the middle of the ocean, with the love of your life missing and being nowhere near land…its fair to assume that you may well die.
This is where we find Tami, a traveller who has followed her heart and boarded a boat with soulmate Richard for a trip across the ocean.
Finding Richard severely injured on a life-size dinghy, she manages to pull him back onto the boat for safety – and then spends the next 41 days trying to keep them both alive.
Intercut with the trial of the boat is the story of how they met and fell in love, thanks to a chance meeting in Tahiti through to their fateful run in with a hurricane in the middle of the Pacific.
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Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin lead this entire movie almost alone, with a few bit roles in their life before they climb aboard the boat.
But its Shailenes show really.
As pained as it is hard to watch at times, Tamis fight for safety does tread familiar water, but is sweet at its heart.
While its easy to understand why they tell the tale of their love throughout their stay aboard the ill-fated Hazana, you cant help but find the structure a little jarring as it dips between love story and action film.
By the end of the film, you can kind of tell whats coming, and stranded-at-sea is unfortunately quite worn territory at this point thanks to films like Open Water and Cast Away. It doesnt bring much new to the table.
Adrift is based on a true story, and its a harrowing one at that, but a horrific ordeal doesnt always make an interesting movie. Unfortunately, this film kind of proves that.
But the casting director did a brilliant job of matching Sam and Shailene who, like their real-life counterparts, have a big age gap but seem to fit together seamlessly. You truly believed they loved each other, and it carried the film along.
If that wasnt there, it would never have got off the ground.
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Ultimately, Adrift was a nice enough way to pass two hours, it never left us completely bored and it was easy popcorn fodder.
Though if it was just half an hour shorter, we wouldnt have been mad.
Adrift opens in cinemas this Friday.
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