Adrift is tribute to a real-life survival story of Tami Oldham during one of history’s worst calamities – a Category 4 storm in 1983.
At first, the story is interesting – a young free-spirited woman arriving in Tahiti. Then it becomes romantic when she meets 33-year-old Richard Sharp, an Englishman and a fellow wanderer with a love of the open ocean, pretty much her male version. And when the two start their voyage from Tahiti to San Diego, everything turns into a heart-wrenching experience.
It starts off as a shared journey only to end in a worst situation some adventures sometimes face. Everything goes horribly wrong when the yacht they are being paid to transport unexpectedly collides with a Category 4 storm. They never anticipated to be sailing directly into a hurricane that whips up 40-foot waves and 140-knot winds.
American actress Shailene Woodley plays Tami Oldham, a 24-year-old American woman who embarks on a journey of an incredible fight for survival when a massive hurricane damaged her and fiance’s (played by Sam Claflin) yacht leaving her stranded on the Pacific Ocean for 41 days.
The film works on two timelines interwoven seamlessly: a flashback before their journey; and the “present-tense action” where they have to fight for survival.
The movie opens with Tami waking up to a dilapidated boat, with Richard nowhere in sight. Panic-stricken, she tries to radio for help and put the boat back in order. By some miracle, she finds Richard in the waters, badly injured.
With no hope for rescue, Tami tries to find the strength and determination to save herself and the man she can’t see herself living without.
Amid her gruelling battle for survival, having managed to rig a makeshift sail while looking after the badly injured Richards (whose condition worsens each day with a broken rib and an open wound on his leg), hallucinations begins to set in —including an island thought to be Hawaii appearing on the horizon one day, only to disappear the next and a rescue ship heading their way only to vanish as well.
As the flashbacks move ever-closer to the hurricane itself, and the story progresses, it reveals certain truths about Tami’s predicament – she is all alone for 41 days and only relies on her memory of Richard’s voice to get going.
Aaron Kandell (Walt Disney’s Moana), one of the movie’s screenwriters, reveals that he and his twin brother Jordan wrote the story with Woodley in mind. When they visited Tami Oldham in her home in the San Juan Islands, they instantly saw her strength and her free spirit, and she reminded them so much of Woodley whom they’ve known since her role in The Descendants.
True enough, Woodley renders an emotional performance in this movie, which was filmed for 49 days, primarily on location in Fiji, with a few weeks on stage in New Zealand.
Sans the presence of long dialogues, the movie fairly illustrates the energy of the divine soulmate connection between Tami and her fiancé, Richard. Woodley and Claflin rehearsed together for two weeks in Fiji prior to principal photography. Hence, the palpable chemistry.
Adrift is now in cinemas presented by Viva International Pictures.
