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Adrift (2006) For some reason, there's a burgeoning sub-genre of 'based on a true story' horror movies around: cf: Wolf Creek, They and - most relevantly here - Open Water. They tend, like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, to be 'inspired by several similar true stories but with fictional characters' rather than journalistic dramatisations of actual events like, say, United 93 or Alive. Interestingly, 'true story' films are almost all about folks on holiday or otherwise trespassing in a country or climate where they aren't welcome and suffer terrible ordeals. In Adrift, uniquely, there's no psychotic killer (or even a shark pack), just someone stupid making a terrible mistake which puts his small circle of friends in mortal jeopardy. The set-up is brisk and efficient, introducing an almost Big Chill-bunch: confident, successful, handsome Dan (Eric Dane) hosts a birthday party for his best buddy slacker Zach (Niklaus Lange) on the Godspeed, his luxury yacht; also aboard are Zach's friendly ex Lauren (Ali Hillis), their longtime friend Amy (Susan May Pratt), Amy's niceguy husband James (Richard Speight Jr) and their baby Sarah; and Michelle (Cameron Richardson), Dan's blonde girlfriend of a few weeks who is significantly younger than the others and wears a 'dental floss' bikini. The Godspeed heads out to sea and, after an ominous bit about lifejacketed Amy's phobia of the water (keyed in to a childhood incident not fully shown until the end), there's byplay between the longtime friends and the two newcomers. Then, in the middle of open seas, everyone goes swimming and Dan, who perhaps regrets not staying with Amy, tries with good-natured imbecility to cure her phobia by taking her in his arms and jumping overboard. After Amy has been shocked to near-catatonia and Dan shouted at by everyone else, it turns out he has forgotten to lower the steps that would enable them to climb easily back aboard the yacht. It's an elegant, simple hinge - more primal even than the foul-up that leaves the couple to become sharkbait in Open Water - and the picture works through all the permutations, with attempts to use tied-together swimsuits or a knife to get back to safety, arguments and recriminations among the floating folks, further disasters (James fractures his skull against the propeller, Zach is stabbed when Dan tries to stop him damaging the yacht, Michelle just drowns and eerily drifts away), some slightly too-tidy dramatic revelations (Dan is a fraud, a 'mail-room monkey', and this is his boss's yacht), a rainstorm at night and a piling-on-the-agony device in the baby monitor which lets Amy know when Sarah has awoken and is crying. Though the personal stories feel like screenwriters' inventions rather
than real life, Adrift works when it concentrates on
simple, physical realities of these people's plights, fates and behaviour
under extreme stress. Any audience will spend the film pondering ways
out of the central quandary, and if the characters overlook possible
solutions to their problem (an escape method eventually used is similar
to the one I thought of first) that still doesn't make their actions
less convincing. Shooting in widescreen and mostly at water-level –
with only sparing use of undersea shots - director Hans Horn makes it
all very beautiful, which emphasises the growing threat, and works hard
with his young, good-looking, unfamiliar, intrepid cast. First published in this form here. Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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