Adrift (2018 film)


Adrift is a 2018 American romantic drama film produced and directed by Baltasar Kormákur and written by David Branson Smith, Aaron Kandell and Jordan Kandell. Based on a true story and set in 1983, the film stars Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin as a couple who are adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after a hurricane, and must find their way to Hawaii with a damaged boat and no radio.
Adrift was released in the United States on June 1, 2018 by STXfilms and received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Woodley's performance and the cinematography but criticized the familiar narrative.

Plot

Five months before the hurricane, Tami arrives in Tahiti on board the schooner Sofia and meets Richard Sharp, a British sailor. Richard invites Tami for dinner aboard his boat Mayaluga. During dinner, Richard reveals that he has experienced hallucinations after days at sea.
Shortly before they embark on the ill-fated trip, Tami and Richard bump into Peter and Christine Crompton, owners of the Hazaña, a luxury Trintella 44 yacht. The Cromptons offer Richard $10,000 and a return first-class ticket back to Tahiti to help them sail Hazaña to San Diego, California. Richard accepts the offer, with a condition that Tami comes along. He proposes to Tami with a handmade ring, and she accepts.
Shortly before the hurricane strikes, Tami and Richard receive news of the impending Hurricane Raymond but decide to continue to San Diego anyway. When the storm hits, Tami tries to radio for help, to no avail. The storm alters course and the yacht enters the eye of the storm. Richard and Tami have no choice but to lower the sails to prevent the boat from tipping over. Tami almost falls off the yacht after the boat hits turbulent waves. Richard professes his love for her and demands that she go below where she will be safer. Hazaña is repeatedly flipped after encountering a rogue wave. Tami is thrown about, suffering from her head injury, and Richard is thrown overboard when knocked unconscious by the mast and his safety harness breaks. He slowly sinks into the ocean, while the Hazaña flips and floats back to the surface thereafter.
Tami awakes on the sailing yacht Hazaña after being unconscious. She searches the crippled yacht in hopes of finding her fiancé Richard and realizes he has been swept overboard in a catastrophic hurricane. Tami screams in anguish and it is revealed that she is all alone, with no ships or land in sight.
On the wrecked Hazaña, Tami finds that all electronic devices have been ruined by water damage, preventing her from making distress calls. She spots the lost dinghy with Richard clinging to it and tries to sail the ship towards him to no avail. After falling off the yacht and almost drowning, she has no choice but to make repairs to the ship in order to get it moving. She fashions a makeshift sail using a broken pole and a storm jib and a pump to prevent the cabin from flooding. She then makes her way toward Richard. After saving him, Tami realizes that Richard has broken ribs and a shattered right shin. While searching for food supplies, she realizes she has a head injury and stitches the wound with a sail needle and thread.
Tami decides to change course to Hawaii after a delusionary discussion of options with Richard. She sees a tanker heading straight for the Hazaña and fires multiple flares, but the ship sails right past them. Tami wonders if she has been hallucinating. Richard begins to suffer from a high fever; he reminds Tami that a red sky signifies a storm. Tami prepares by creating a makeshift shelter.
Tami realizes the injured Richard on board the Hazaña is nothing but a hallucination, and she surrenders to the reality that Richard has been lost at sea. She sees a Japanese research vessel in the distance and fires two flares. The vessel heads towards Tami, rescuing her. Tami returns to Tahiti after recovering and visits Richard's boat, bursting into tears after seeing the photos of Richard and herself. She goes to the beach with a frangipani flower, places her engagement ring around the flower, and lets it go in the water.
It is revealed in the credits that Richard Sharp was swept overboard and never found; Tami Oldham was all alone aboard the Hazaña for 41 days and she continues to sail to date.

Cast

Adrift was acquired by STX Entertainment in February 2017. The studio was set to produce and distribute the film, starring Shailene Woodley as Tami Oldham, and directed by Baltasar Kormákur from a script by Aaron & Jordan Kandell. The Kandells and Woodley also produced the film, along with Kormákur through his RVK Studios, and Ralph Winter. In April 2017, Miles Teller entered into negotiations to co-star opposite Woodley, whom he had collaborated with four times prior. However, in May 2017, Sam Claflin joined the film in the role meant for Teller, who had to pass due to "scheduling conflicts."
Principal photography on the film began in July 2017 in Fiji, and lasted five weeks. The cast and crew took two-hour boat rides into the ocean every day, and Woodley stated many members were seasick over the course of filming.

Music

"Where's My Love" by SYML was featured in the first trailer for Adrift, which was released on March 14, 2018. "Song for Zula" by Phosphorescent was featured in the final trailer, released on May 7, 2018.
Academy Award-nominated composer Hauschka composed the original score for the film. The film's soundtrack includes his original score, and a cover of Tom Waits's "I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You", by Emilíana Torrini. Also featured in the film but not on the soundtrack is "Picture In A Frame" by Waits, which is played during a montage scene of Tami Oldham Ashcraft before the end credits. The soundtrack has been released by Sony Classical and is available on Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

Release

Adrift was released on June 1, 2018 in the United States by STX Entertainment. The film's $35 million production was mostly covered by foreign presales, totalling up to $20 million. STX accounted for $3 million out of the film's remaining $15 million budget, with an additional $25 million spent on prints and advertising.

Box office

Adrift grossed $31.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $28.5 million in other territories, for a total gross of $59.9 million, against a production budget of $35 million. In the United States and Canada, Adrift was released alongside Action Point and Upgrade, and was projected to gross $10–15 million from 3,015 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $4.2 million on its first day, including $725,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $11.6 million, finishing third, behind and Deadpool 2; 62% of its audience was female, with 69% being over the age of 25. The film fell 55% to $5.3 million in its second week, finishing sixth.

Home Entertainment

Adrift was released by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, in collaboration with STXfilms, on Digital HD on August 21, 2018 and DVD and Blu-ray on September 4, 2018. Special features include deleted scenes, 3 featurettes, theatrical trailers as well as a feature commentary by director Baltasar Kormákur and leading actress and producer Shailene Woodley.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 70% based on 191 reviews, and an average rating of 6.16/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Adrift sails smoothly between love story and survival drama, thanks in large part to a gripping central performance from Shailene Woodley." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.
David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a "B–" and praised Woodley's performance, saying: "When all else fails, which it sometimes does, Woodley is there to right the ship. She's eminently believable as a whip-smart, hyper-capable, iron-willed human being who still finds a way to doubt herself... At its best, she wills Adrift into a moving story about a natural born wanderer who needs an anchor to know her own strength." Varietys Owen Gleiberman also noted the film's flaws while praising Woodley, writing, "For long passages of Adrift, we're pleasantly engrossed without necessarily being riveted. The courtship, heartfelt as it is, has a glorified YA shimmer; the boat-adrift-at-sea sections are like All Is Lost without the ingenuity. But there's a hook, a surprise, a twist that carries you through."

Accolades