Adrift

A young couple sailing a 44-foot yacht across the Pacific (Shailene Woodley, Sam Claflin) get caught in 1983’s Hurricane Raymond and are stranded in their crippled boat far from land. The fact-based script by Aaron Kandell, Jordan Kandell and David Branson Smith (based on the memoir by Woodley’s character Tami Oldham) is more complicated than it needs to be, with a time-hopping flashback structure that works against our getting to know the main protagonists. On the other hand, it’s virtually a two-person show, and Woodley and Claflin are both excellent. Filming on water is notoriously challenging, and director Baltasar Kormákur pulls it off neatly; he keeps us interested, if not exactly on the edge of our seats. There’s a plot twist in the last act that won’t surprise those who know the true story.