Adrift is one of those foreign language films that is lauded and showered with awards all over Europe but still suffered from the uncertainty of whether it would get a British release. It’s a good thing that willing cinemagoers will have a chance to see Adrift, because it is a beautiful film with top performances and a narrative that begets more drama than the stunning Brazilian backdrop belies.
It’s the 80s and 14 year old Filipa is spending her summer in Buzios, Brazil with her parents and two younger siblings. Her father Mathias (Cassel) is a writer working on the next of his successful series of novels. Her mother Clarice takes care of the family and tries to ignore that her 20 year relationship is deteriorating before her eyes, dousing her feelings in alcohol.
As always, the children know more then they think and once Filipa senses the growing tension and widening gap between the parents she idolises, she sneaks into her father’s office and discovers photos of him with his new, American lover Angela (Belle). Whilst she deals with her own teenage boy troubles, she soon discovers that her parent’s marriage is built on a bed of lies and her father isn’t the only one at fault.
Adrift achieves greatness by combining many different elements seamlessly into one. On the face of it, it seems that it is all about the parents. The charming, gruff and undoubtedly attractive father, who appears to worship the ground his wife walks on. She is an impossibily sensuous woman whose age and number of offspring doesn’t suit the initial youthful exuberance she exudes. But once the cracks become clear to their eldest child and the audience, it changes gears (again, seamlessly) and becomes a classic coming of age summer story for Filipa.
All in the space of a few weeks, she discovers that her once girlish, but now developed, body is drawing feelings from her male friends that she was previously oblivious to. Unnerved but flattered, she uses this to get what she wants from the boy without conscious knowledge of what it does to him, until he finds someone else. The narrative also unearths the terrifying and completely relatable moment that every person goes through, when they realise their parents are not superheroes but real people with real problems who try and hide it to protect their children. She may not like it, but this is the first time she’s forced to realise that life isn’t fair.
Away from the story and actors, Adrift is a visually enjoyable film. There are far less enjoyable ways to spend your time than watching beautiful people with beautiful bodies flounce across the beautiful beach fronts of Brazil. It never seems forced though, even when Angela – all Gucci sandals, backless Matthew Williamson dresses, Pucci headscarf’s and impossibly shaped eyebrows – enters the fray. She almost represents the ultimate holiday affair fantasy, the type of woman you’d never meet walking down the street but even she is not what Filipa expects.
Cassel’s presence barely needs mentioning, the man is apparently immune to bad performances. He makes you like him even after he breaks down when confronted by his wife, and appears to have forgotten that he was unfaithful as well.
Adrift is a beautiful film that covers more angles and emotions than initially seems likely and should be seen by as many people as possible.
