Abandoned

Substandard. Almost detracted from the story. Seems like the story was told from one persons point of view.

This film is based on a true story, which makes it very interesting. It's a survival tale set on top of a giant collection of water we call the ocean.

The production is convincing and maintains immersion. I thought the casting was perfect, and the actors do an excellent job conveying their characters.

I scored the film high because I felt it presented different aspects of the human spirit which is observed through the characters response and interaction to the situation, themselves and each other.

There is no waste or filler in the film, everything is well paced and contributes to the story which is well written.

I love stumbling on rare gems like this.

Made for TV movie (true story) about a capsized trimaran yacht and how it's crew survived for over 100 days. Well done and reasonably accurate about the sailing offshore in a performance multi-hull. Unlike most disaster / redemption films this one obviously was done by people who knew their topic.

I enjoyed this film as unlike most it made me feel they did not dumb down the content assuming everyone watching could not truly understand the situation. As a sailor I found this film quite realistic.

I feel the actors did a good job of representing the people in the crisis and they avoided overacting with restraint.

I'd heard about this situation and the controversy, so seeing the film added a lot of context to news from the other side of the world.

OK, but doesn't quite deliver on its promise, yet it's still very watchable nonetheless. A little bit sketchy on the meaty parts of the story and a bit too padded out on the bits that are less important. Kind of like 'Cast Away', but on a boat and less gripping.

I watched this with a few sailing friends and all, myself included, were impressed. It is a sea story well told.

But let's stand back from the actual real events for a moment. Here's a film that departs from the current trend in several important and positive directions: The story-line is clear. The voices are intelligible (even if the accent is from the far side of the globe for me). The flash-backs are clearly differentiated from the front-line story. There are not 1026 sub-plots. There is no sexual spicing up of the main story. As far as I could tell there was no subliminal advertising. What a pleasant change from the unintelligible mixup-gatherum of multi-plot nonsense that bombards us these days.

Now back to the sea. I found the story moved along nicely with variations in mood and happenings. It is rare for a true story to be so well told and to maintain interest. It even had the authenticity of a self-righteous skipper who was lavish in his criticism of his crew. My sailing friends wondered why he had no real crew in the first place. Yes, indeed.

Would this appeal to a non-sailing audience? I think it would. There is not exactly an excess of sailing jargon and the four main characters have an adequate range of personalities to maintain interest. Don't expect dramatic back-ground music and people posing on the bow! The story.is a true one and it shows.

The film is known by two different titles, "Abandoned" and "Stranded", neither of which really match the story but then almost any other title would give away too much.

One thought to finish with: one of the most important things to have when your boat is taking a tumble is a mirror.