Robert Redford wakes up on his yacht one morning to find he's hit some discarded cargo and is leaking in the middle of the Indian Ocean - he has to spend the rest of his film battling this problem and all that flow from it, including the elements. It's a gripping story, with Redford having to carry almost the entire action silently - he doesn't even have a beach ball to talk to.
And while Redford's limitations as an actor are apparent at times (his breakdown isn't much of a breakdown and he's never been good at suggesting tension) he has charisma and likeability which mean we're with him the whole way, the fact he's a star means we feel we know him even in the absence of any back story, and he's obviously a physical guy so I bought it that he was sailing around the world even at that age, and is as capable as his character seems to be (I don't know whether you'd believe it of, say, Anthony Hopkins). So I hope he gets the Oscar nomination that must have been at the back of his mind when he wanted to do this.
The filmmakers did a marvellous job of recreating the experience of being on a yacht. I think the second ship passing was one too many but I know why they did it. This is something a bit new for an action adventure tale and I hope it makes a lot of cash.
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