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A couple
of old friends decide to have a small reunion
as one of them is turning 30. They take a yacht out to
celebrate on the open sea with music, sun-bathing, and
perhaps most importantly, swimming. When they realize
that no one has put the ladder down, they quickly
panic and try to find ways to get back onto the boat,
something which appears to be impossible. It doesn't
take long before the situation makes the friends turn
against eachother, unabling them to see that their worst
enemy isn't the sea...
Once again a movie that could have been a 10 min short
has become a full length feature. This time it's the
unofficial Open Water sequel, Adrift that has benefited
from a thin plot based on true events. So how do you
make a sequel to a movie about two people stranded in
the middle of the sea? You guessed it; you throw a bunch
of 20-something's into the sea. I was naturally very
sceptical towards this movie when I first saw the trailer
as it seemed a lot like a teen-friendly version of Open
Water. And I guess in a way that it is, but in another
way; it's really not.
Adrift actually surprised me positively and ended up
being slightly better than Open Water (which I only
thought was an okay movie to begin with). It's not a
horror movie in any way (I'm only reviewing it because
I reviewed the first movie). Not to spoil anything but
if you're expecting sharks, you will be disappointed.
Even though I know Open Water was based on a true
story, Adrift feels more credible. This could actually
happen to anyone and I guess that's what made it so intense.
The plot is, as I said, very thin and revolves around
a couple of friends who haven't seen eachother in a
long time. They decide to go out on a yacht to celebrate
the 30th birthday of one of the friends - even though
one of them is afraid of water (oh and I should mention
that this person also has her baby with her on board).
One thing leads to another and the friends soon find
themselves floating around in the water below the yacht
with no way to get back on it - and yes, to make
things worse, the baby is naturally still on the boat.
Exhaustion, panic and hunger start to spread among the
friends and it doesn't take very long for them to
turn on eachother. As you can hear it's a pretty simple
idea, but it works. Sure, I had all ready figured out
three ways to get back on the boat before they even jumped
in, but had they been able to get back on board within
five minutes, this movie wouldn't have been very exciting
now, would it? Instead we get to watch the helpless
friends float around in the ocean while the situation
slowly intensifies and becomes more and more intriguing.
Adrift was not shot in the same way that Open Water
was, instead it looks the way a movie should look;
crisp and stylish. Adrift simply didn't need to
look "home-made" to feel realistic. Yes, I really did
like just about everything in this movie slightly
better than I did in Open Water. I still think that
the plot's a bit too simple though and my final verdict
is that if you like intense thrillers which doesn't
try to outsmart you - you will probably enjoy Adrift,
but if you're aching for another killer shark movie,
you're better off looking at the Sci-Fi channel.
Nothing worth mentioning.
I really missed a good, strong soundtrack in this movie
as it was pretty silent for most of the time. The
little music that we did get was also pretty average.
While not the most clever thriller, Adrift is still
a fairly entertaining movie which surpasses its
"predecessor" (so to speak). The story is pretty thin
but the situation feels so credible that it still
works well enough to entertain you for an hour and a
half. Not for killer shark fans though.
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