Shailene Woodley is excellent here and the movie is elevated by her performance. The film itself is engaging but predictable and you can see the twist coming a mile away. But it's handsomely photographed and does have its effective moments, and Woodley and Claflin have a nice, easygoing chemistry. Solid. B

I for some reason totally didn't see it coming, ha. For as standard as this movie looked, it was quite entertaining and surprising.

I never felt they were absolutely screwed (as she would solve problems so quickly), so it definitely wasn't as suspenseful as I would have guessed this was going to be.

I wasn't a huge fan of the back and forth storytelling structure either. It killed any suspense and momentum.

This is a well-acted and shot film with a major structural flaw: it presents two timelines (world travelers Richard and Tami meet in Tahiti, fall in love, set out on a sailing voyage to California; Richard and Tami try to survive after their vessel is partly destroyed by Hurricane Raymond) and alternates between them very bluntly, one scene from then, one scene from now, one scene from then, one scene from now. This continues for the duration of the entire picture, and it has a bizarre effect on the film's pacing and sense of mounting dread. I presume there was fear a chronological presentation would be too slow to begin and/or too arduous in its second half, but remember: The Perfect Storm adjusts to 310 million, and it plays for around an hour as a slice-of-fishermen-life drama. Otherwise, there is much to admire here: Shailene Woodley delivers a performance of intense emotional and physical commitment, and cinematographer Robert Richardson's (an Oscar winner for JFK, The Aviator, and Hugo) stormily aquatic photography is never less than convincing. The twist is manipulative and melodramatic (particularly once it requires an explanatory montage), but the film improbably sells it via the actors' chemistry and a poignant, Tom Waits-scored coda.