Movie Review: Adrift

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland

Michael's Movie Grade: B+


Review: An excellent film that is very well told and often quite intense.

This film is told in a very interesting way. We continually cut back and forth between our main character (Shailene Woody) stuck out at sea, and her meeting and falling in love with the man (Sam Claflin) she traveled with. Unlike what many films would do, there is no hint that the character is recalling what had happened before, and it is doubtful that is what is happing here as she has too much on her plate to reminisce. Rather this is the way the director (Baltasar Kormákur) has decided to tell this story. As such there are no conventional transitions from scene to scene. This filmmaking style is however extremely effective here and never feels jarring, but instead flows perfectly naturally. This is hugely because of the emotion connection between the scenes. These are often contrasting emotions, with the happiness of the love scenes contrasting very well with intense sense of despair in the stranded scenes.

The scenes with our hero stranded are appropriately quite intense. They easily keep one on the edge of their seat. This is often helped with great visual filmmaking, especially the great cinematography from Robert Richardson.


The love story however often feels rather conventional and rushed. This part of the film could definitely have used more time to be fleshed out. However the performances from our two stars make this work very well, and have us still believe the romance.


-Michael J. Ruhland