DVD Review: Adrift (À Deriva)

Sexually charged.

Sexually charged is a good way to describe this film. Not because there are a lot of sex scenes, because there isn't. The thought of sex never seems to far from the character's minds. The way the movie was shot even seemed overly sexual to me. Needless to say, that's our theme for this Portuguese film.

Filipa (Laura Neiva) is just coming of age. While going through her teen awakening she begins to take a closer look at her own parents. Her Father's (Vincent Cassell) relationship with her alcoholic mother is starting to become strained. She constantly belittles his work as a writer. He tries to focus on his work and his children but soon finds himself in an affair with a beautiful American woman (Camilla Belle, who literally has 2 lines in the entire movie.) who lives nearby. Filipa finds pictures of them in her father's desk and takes to following him to her house and watching them through the windows.


When I first heard about this movie I thought it was going to be more about Vincent Casell. That's what originally intrigued me, but it's Filipa's story. Our lead actress is promising, but I felt like the film was just waiting to be something more. It's not that the characters lacked development, because I thought they were presented well. The tone of the movie just set me off a bit. It's hard to explain. The relationship between Filipa and her Father is weird to begin with and continues down that path and never recovers. I felt like the director was trying to say something else, but never did. While the movie was interesting and held my attention, it wasn't what I was expecting.

Recommended: Draw, see it for Cassell if you're a fan, he's never boring.

Grade: C

Memorable Quote: "I hate you." - Mathias (Vincent Cassell)