Film Review: Adrift

Released in 2009 and set in the 1980s, Adrift is a little treasure that passes by like a hot lazy summer. It's about a family in Brazil who goes to their vacation home with their three children. The film tends to focus on the relationship between the oldest daughter, Filipa, played by Laura Neiva (pictured right) and her doting father, Mathias, played by Vincent Cassel (pictured right). He is a very loving and affectionate father to his three children; playful, attentive, and funny, his charm wins over his children, the audience, but not his wife.

In the perspective of Filipa and her younger brother and younger sister, their parents are happily married with a few marriage quarrels and a mother that really likes her alcohol. The children believe they are vacationing to relax but also so that their father can finish his next masterpiece. He is a famous author and has written many novels; he is so well known that a producer wants the movie rights to one of his novels but he is unsure as he isn't fond of the producer. Filipa has a few friends her age in the area so each day she swims with them, rides her bike with them, lays on the beach, hangs out, and plays games with them like spin the bottle. Everything goes well until a boy in the group finds her attractive. She is transitioning between the child mentality where all boys are gross and the teenage mentality where boys are interesting. Watching her find her way is mesmerizing and Laura Neiva is a fantastic little actress as she portrays a character who is a child sometimes and an adult other times.

One evening her family is at a restaurant. Her father excuses himself and Filipa gets a drink for her mother. When Filipa goes to the bar she looks above and sees a younger woman talking to her father. She doesn't think anything of it but as time passes on, she spies on her father and finds them making out. She is heart broken and confused. She continues to follow them and discovers more and more. This obsession drives her to be curious about her own sexuality and little by little drifts away from her father. An incredible scene is the morning after she discovers her father's affair. The look she gives him at the breakfast table is subtle but so intense. She looks at him as if he's a stranger; all this with her eyes. It will leave the audience filled with knots in their belly! Her father feels this drift and attempts to draw his daughter close as before; one day telling her, "Hey! You didn't kiss me yet!" His method to gain intimacy with his children is through playfulness; it works 98% of the time and for the time being it works for Filipa.

One afternoon, Mathias is with his wife, Clarice, played by Debora Bloch (pictured right) and two other friends and he discusses the plot of his next book. He reveals the plot is of a woman who has an affair with a man fifteen years her junior and her husband finds out. Clarice is shocked and when Filipa sees her mother being consoled by her friend, she automatically assumes that the plot was about her father with a few minor changes. Her rage towards her father is even more intense and she is conflicted whether she should tell her mother or not. She doesn't want to break up her family but she doesn't want her father cheating on her mother either. Many twists and turns later and a secret is revealed that causes an irreconcilable rift.

Adrift ends with even more tragedy but an inevitable tragedy involving Filipa. Mathias reacts like a truly loving father would: sad but extremely loving and understanding. He instinctively plays with her to regain their intimacy but we never know if it works. Only 97 minutes, spoken in Portuguese with English subtitles, this Brazilian treasure is a must see!