Adrift - Preview
Preview by Jack Foley
MOVIES are rather like buses – they come along in twos. Audiences have barely had time to catch their breath since surviving the trauma of Open Water, but now they’re faced with Adrift.
Based on another urban legend, the film follows the fortunes of six swimmers who find themselves, erm, adrift in open water when they decide to go for a swim off their luxury yacht without remembering to put down the steps that will enable them to get back on board.
To up the ante, one of the swimmers has a phobia of water (we won’t tell you how she takes the plunge in the first place) and is the mother of a baby, who has been left asleep on the vessel.
The ensuing 80 or so minutes have all manner of twists and turns as the stricken six attempt to find a way back onto the yacht, while contending with the psychological toll of their predicament and the potential dangers that lurk beneath.
Adrift was shown at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where it emerged as one of the better movies. But it’s proximity and similarity to Open Water is sure to make audiences more than a little sceptical – particularly as the former film left them divided over its merits.
Adrift is directed by German filmmaker Hans Horn and has been a story he was keen to tell for the past five years. Unfortunately, despite repeated attempts to find a studio willing to back it back then, nobody bit until the commercial success of Open Water.
However, while comparisons are inevitable, Horn maintains that this offers chills of a different variety.
In an interview with Total Film magazine, he states: “It’s not Open Water and it’s not Jaws. It’s out to scare you in a very different way. I wanted a theatre play on the water, where everybody has a cool development in the script.”
The ensuing film employs an unknown cast of emerging Americans and was shot off the coast of Malta for a budget that was roughly double the cost of Open Water (well, if you have more people in peril, then you have to double the salary).
Lead actor, Eric Dane, may be recognisable to X-Men: The Last Stand fans as Multiple Man, while Baywatch veterans may recall Ali Hillis from an episode.
Ironically, Hillis stepped in at the last minute when original star, Emma (Buffy) Caulfield, was fired after it emerged at the last minute that she couldn’t swim. That was only the first of many obstacles the cast and crew had to overcome in order to complete filming.
But the results have largely been worth it as Adrift has won many friends on the festival circuit. It opens in UK cinemas on September 1.