Adrift
STX Entertainment | Release Date: June 1, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
13
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ObserverRex ReedJun 5, 2018
It’s a true story, basically a two-hander about a pair of courageous lovers lost at sea, as crushingly hard to imagine as it is to watch, but every element is so perfect that it left me shaking and devastated. Read full review
80
The GuardianJordan HoffmanMay 31, 2018
Adrift doesn’t have quite the existential gut-punch of JC Chandor’s similar All Is Lost or the recent Cannes debut , but what it lacks in the department of pure howling cinema, it makes up for with the emotion of its central relationship. Read full review
75
Rolling StoneDavid FearJun 1, 2018
What keeps Adrift from feeling like just a travelogue tacked on to a tragi-sploitive star vehicle is, ironically enough, its star. Shailene Woodley has always been great when it comes to bringing the radiance – she's like a sunbeam made sentient – and even better when she can use that California Dreamin' glow semi-subversively a la "The Spectacular Now" or "The Descendents." Read full review
75
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonMay 31, 2018
Director Baltasar Kormákur's film is a simple, acutely observed love story that also happens to be a rousingly stripped-down tale of survival. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 31, 2018
Woodley is a stronger screen presence than the low-key Claflin, but they have a lovely and natural chemistry together. Read full review
75
The PlaylistKimber MyersMay 31, 2018
Adrift avoids the perils of most survival stories, thanks not only to its strong cast and well-structured script but to Kormákur who manages to succeed at capturing the tone of both the intimate moments and the ones where a building-sized wave looms over Tami and Richard. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyMay 31, 2018
It's not just a story of an incredible feat of survival. It's also a love story, presented with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 31, 2018
Although guilty of soft-peddling some harrowing aspects of the experience to achieve the teen-friendly PG-13 rating, Adrift nevertheless gives a flavor of the existential experience inherent in this situation by illustrating that surviving a shipwreck is as much about mental strength as physical endurance and stamina. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 31, 2018
It’s all done expertly and with an unexpectedly deft sleight-of-hand twist in the homestretch that proves once again that Kormakur is the kind of overachieving director that one pigeonholes at their own risk. He has a knack for making the familiar feel more surprising than it is. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicSamantha IncorvaiaMay 31, 2018
Despite predictability, flashback hopping and cheesy lines, Adrift takes viewers on a trip through beautiful cinematography and gut-wrenching performances that are worth seeing. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 31, 2018
Woodley gives herself over to the physical and spiritual reality of each scene. She knows how to play an ordinary woman who’s wild at heart, and she keeps you captivated, even when the film itself is watchable in a perfectly competent, touching, and standard way. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerMay 31, 2018
Given the sweetly dull-witted relationship at its center, Adrift threatens to bog itself down with the endless intercutting back and forth in time. But the movie has a little more up its sleeves, narratively speaking, than first appears, and Kormákur converges the two timelines effectively. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 31, 2018
Adrift is told with an inimitable sense of place and a rare attention to detail, both of which help to ensure that we never lose sight of the terror at hand. When all else fails, which it sometimes does, Woodley is there to right the ship. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 1, 2018
It’s great seeing Woodley out of YA sci-fi and into a role that makes use of her approachable reality. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 31, 2018
They never quite got the script right, but director Kormakur toggles well enough. And Woodley sees it through. Read full review
63
New York PostSara StewartMay 31, 2018
Adrift is paced like its title, and the story’s momentum is slowed somewhat by constant toggling between past and present. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaJun 1, 2018
Adrift is enough of a boilerplate piece of survival drama that you know to expect those beats more or less coming on schedule, but Woodley makes it more emotionally satisfying than it would be otherwise. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMay 31, 2018
If the part of the film devoted to endurance lacks the harrowing power of, say, 2013's All Is Lost, it at least gives Woodley the opportunity to convincingly sink her teeth into a plum dramatic lead role as a young woman fighting fiercely against the forces of nature (instead of a dystopian civilization). Read full review
55
TheWrapRobert AbeleMay 31, 2018
There’s a choppiness in the overall dramatic pull that — despite the surface appeal of the stars and Kormákur’s and cinematographer Robert Richardson’s visuals — keeps Adrift from making true waves. Read full review
50
Film ThreatFilipe FreitasOct 6, 2018
What saves Adrift from an instant wreckage is Woodley’s performance, but still, it’s preferable to read the facts than cope with its cinematic adaptation. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 31, 2018
Director Baltasar Kormákur makes good use of location filming on the open waters, giving this melodramatic tale a dose of realism, but this true story is never as harrowing as the subject matter would suggest. Blame it on a misjudged narrative device and Adrift’s generally adolescent approach to relationships and maritime emergencies. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenMay 31, 2018
Woodley and Claflin make an attractive pair, but they’re not particularly convincing playing people deeply, deeply in love. There’s something lacking in the conviction department there. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMay 31, 2018
What seems at first like an ingenious and surprising dramatic strategy feels, by the end, like an evasion on the movie’s part, a refusal to grant its subject the unflinching honesty it deserves. A true story it may be, but no one should mistake it for a truthful one. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonMay 31, 2018
You can consume only so much gooey romanticism before someone gets seasick, and it’s precisely the soggy love story at the center of Adrift — a survival-at-sea adventure directed by the estimable Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur — that prevents this storm-tossed vehicle from achieving maximum upthrust. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorMay 31, 2018
Like "Everest," Adrift is a movie throbbing with an audience’s anxiety – and yet it is not particularly dramatic. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMay 31, 2018
Like the peanut butter that serves as a primary source of sustenance in the film, Adrift can be devoured in smooth and/or crunchy modes: high-seas romance or cataclysmic adventure. There are commendable aspects to recommend each approach, yet the final result is an uneasy blend. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 31, 2018
The chronological back-and-forth diffuses the dread and suspense — the feeling of desperate uncertainty implied by the title — that might have made for a more intense, more memorable yarn. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoMay 31, 2018
As he did with his "Everest" cast, Kormákur draws a strong, pathos-rich performance from Woodley, filled with moments of her character confronting her own mortality and looking back on safe choices not made. It’s solid drama, but also very slow going. Read full review
40
EmpireJonathan PileJun 25, 2018
Hampered by a script that fails to make the central love affair work and few new ideas while they’re stranded at sea, even the best efforts of its talented lead pair can’t keep this afloat. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 31, 2018
Woodley has been first-rate in everything she’s been in, particularly the “Divergent” series. But there’s something about her performance here that feels like the sincere and dutiful dispersal of medicine. Read full review
25
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonMay 31, 2018
There is the potential here for an engaging adventure/survival tale, wrapped in a story of a woman finding her self-confidence by drawing on untapped reserves of strength. But Kormákur fails to find any shape in the narrative of Tami’s actual or psychological journey. Read full review
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