THIS week we take to the seas with the disaster survival film Adrift, the true harrowing story, based on the trip of Tammi Oldham Ashcroft and her fiancé Richard Sharp. The story, set in 1983, follows the lovers, who were taking a yacht between Tahiti and San Diego when they accidentally sailed into Hurricane Raymond.

It’s difficult not to immediately draw up comparisons with other nautical disaster films such as the Perfect Storm, also based on true events of fishermen sailing into three colliding storms. Further comparisons could be made with Robert Redford’s All is Lost, another intensely gripping film about a man who is left to survive after his yacht sinks in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

So, you’re forgiven for thinking you’ve seen it all before, but Adrift’s story is quite extraordinary and is a head above the comparative films. All is Lost is a fictional story, well written, well told but loses something that adds that extra element that touches the viewer, truth. The Perfect Storm is based on some truth but even had lawsuits filed against it for exaggerating and twisting what happened for dramatic effect. Adrift is based on the book written by Ashcroft, Red Sky in Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss and Survival at Sea, and with Ashcroft herself on board, the production keeps its accuracy with real-life events, so although the film is not a documentary, it cannot be accused of falsary. Knowing that what you are seeing actually happened makes viewing both intense, inspiring and heart-breaking, with stunning performances from the two young leads, Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin. If you decide to go see this film, certainly strap yourself in for a rough ride.

The Book Shop equally contains a resistant female protagonist also battling the odds, but this time it’s battling the long-installed morals of an English county town, instead of the ocean. Based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s Booker Prize-nominated novel of 1978, The Book Shop is the story of a free-spirited widow, Florence Green (Emily Mortimer), who takes on provincialism as she opens a bookstore in Hardborough, a sleepy Suffolk seaside town. Set in the 1950s, tension is created when the social and sexual revolution of forward-thinking, new-wave literature is introduced by Green, to a town very much stuck in its ways.

This fictional story is not based on any true-life events but the truth this film holds is staying true to the original novel. With a strong cast including Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and Bill Nighy and directed by the award winning Spanish director Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me, The Secret Life of Words), this thoughtful literary feast is in the safe hands of classy actors and a director that has form telling stories of women who take risks to do the right thing. This film will certainly appeal to those who like to appreciate the subtleties and undercurrents of quaint English period dramas.

Philip Duguid-McQuillan