Always Good Movies

Direction: Baltasar Kormakur
Country: Iceland / UK

The work of Icelandic writer-director Baltasar Kormakur has been consistently satisfying, with 101 Reykjavik (2000), Jar City (2006), and The Deep (2012) among his notable films. His latest effort, Touch, is a serious, affecting, and ultimately surprising drama that rewards viewers with some unexpected twists.

The plot follows Kristofer (Egill Ólafsson), an aging Icelandic restaurant owner who lives alone, grappling with the gradual loss of motor skills and tricky mind. Advised by his doctor to take care of any unresolved issues while he still can, he decides to travel to London - where he studied and worked 51 years ago - and then to Hiroshima during the unsettling times of the pandemic. He’s tries to reconnect with the love of his life, Miko (Yoko Narahashi).

Cleanly directed and credibly acted, Touch succeeds through its idiosyncratic focus on character and relationships. The film is structured with numerous flashbacks that illuminate the urgency behind certain decisions, in a manifestation of how a particular stage of life requires you to come back to your deepest emotions. Based on Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson’s 2022 novel of the same name, the story doesn’t offer anything breathtaking and occasionally meanders with some lengthening detours. However, it's told with a quiet intensity, featuring elegant staging and culminating in a heartfelt conclusion.

Touch might be easily overlooked, but it remains a light watch, a candid representation of a profound love. It’s a pleasant surprise for fans of the genre.

Directed by: Baltazar Kormakur
Country: USA / Iceland / Hong Kong

“Adrift” is an uneven survival drama co-produced and directed by a connoisseur in the genre, the Icelandic Baltasar Kormakur (“The Deep”, “Everest”). It was loosely based on the true events endured by a young couple caught by the category-four Hurricane Raymond while sailing from Tahiti to San Diego in 1983. Shailene Woodley (“The Fault in Our Stars”, “Divergent”) stars as Tami Oldham Ashcraft, a brave woman who, alone in the sea, manages to stay alive after massive waves have erupted from the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

Having been 27 hours unconscious due to a blow on her head, Tami wakes up just to realize that her fiancé, Richard (Sam Claflin), was gone, probably swallowed by the tempestuous sea. However, she started to believe in miracles in the minute she catches sight of him on a small rubber boat that keeps floating not so far from their ruined 44-foot yacht Hazana. Visibly disturbed, Richard has a leg shattered and some broken ribs, showing no reaction to her talking. How could this have been possible? Is Tami’s fertile imagination working in her favor or a miracle actually happened? The truth is that Tami survived 41 days adrift, eating canned fruit salad and sardines.

The inspiring reality was monotonically scripted by the Kandell twins (“Moana”) together with David Branson Smith (“Ingrid Goes West”), and wasn’t convincingly adapted to the screen, drowning fast in clumsy procedures and obtuse lines. Recurring to inevitable yet disruptive flashbacks to show us how the couple had met five years before, Kormakur creates tragic/romantic momentum without ever going too deep.

Consequently, the film shapes into an exhausting melodrama instead of the harrowing, devastating adventure that everybody was expecting. A punch-less attitude from the director, who makes us suspicious about what his next step is going to be. What saves “Adrift” from an instant wreckage is Woodley’s performance, but still, it’s preferable to read the facts than cope with its cinematic adaptation.