Adrift

"In Adrift, an incredible true story of survival at sea is made ordinary by lackluster direction. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, Adrift follows Tami Oldham (Shailene Woodley) and her boyfriend Richard Sharp (Sam Claflin) as they become stranded in a storm somewhere in the 6500 km stretch of Pacific Ocean between Tahiti and San Diego. Intercut with glib flashbacks to the couple’s courtship, Tami and a gravely injured Richard attempt to sail toward Hawaii in the remnants of their battered boat."

"[Woodley] knows how to play an ordinary woman who's wild at heart, and she keeps you captivated, even when the film itself is watchable in a perfectly competent, touching, and standard way."

"The film is a notch below average."

"Proving adept at both action sequences and emotional trauma..."

"Director Baltasar Kormakur makes good use of location filming on the open waters, giving this melodramatic tale a dose of realism, but "Adrift" is never as harrowing as the subject matter would suggest."

"What might have been a typical disaster movie about perfunctorily established characters heading into peril together...instead becomes a love story that keeps asserting and reinforcing itself as the film goes along. It's elegant in the cutting."

"Woodley has a gift for conjoining inner strength and vulnerability until the two are all but indistinguishable."

"If the part of the film devoted to endurance lacks the harrowing power of, say, 2013's All Is Lost, it at least gives Woodley the opportunity to convincingly sink her teeth into a plum dramatic lead role..."

"Stop Googling and see the film first. You'll be glad you didn't know all the details beforehand."