Row

Bluesky

The first people known to intentionally row across the Atlantic, in 1896. took 55 days. In 2018, four men from the UK got the time down to 29 days and 15 hours. The difference in those times wasn’t so much human as technological. Much lighter, more streamlined craft; more precise, automatic navigation equipment; more nutritious, condensed rations and warmer lightweight clothing have all contributed. Now we are finally reaching the point where the difference between different crews’ times comes down to two things: the weather and the ability of those doing the rowing.

Daniel (Akshay Khanna) is the skipper of the Valiant, a little strip of a boat in which he hopes his crew can cross from Newfoundland to Ireland in just 28 days. He may be a rich guy who has basically been gifted the gear, but he’s worked hard to plan the trip, to get everything organised, to get his crew in shape and even, when one of them broke his leg, to find a last minute replacement, Mike (co-writer Nick Skaugen). By the time we meet them, though, we know that the record attempt has been a failure, because we’ve seen one of their comrades, Megan (Bella Dayne), lying in bed in a small village hospital in Orkney, where she washed up on the shore.

The film unfolds as a mystery, ostensibly told in flashback, though the scenes we see are rarely shot from Megan’s point of view and it’s difficult to tell how much is memory and how much reconstruction, conscious or unconscious. It’s difficult to believe, for instance, that the boat would have left port with no ceremony, just a lone watcher – no matter how reliable its instruments, one would expect human witnesses to be required for a record attempt. This kind of detail is less immediately worrying, however, that Megan’s flickering memory of holding a knife and shaking convulsively, of the small deck covered in blood.

Although Megan’s room in Orkney is a hundred or more metres from the sea, she can still hear the sound of the waves. For most of the voyage they seem to have been unnaturally gentle, but we do get a few scenes with big ones which she remembers in her dreams, her body jerking in terror, screaming and gasping for breath until somebody comes to help her. The action scenes built around these are simple but effective, thrilling to watch. Alongside them, we get brief flashbacks, nicely handled by director/editor Matthew Losasso, and long dramatic sequences, sometimes prompted by questions from a detective who is trying to piece the whole thing together.

It’s unfortunate that it all concludes with a flimsy official narrative which a half decent lawyer could rip apart in under a minute. Along the way, there are so many red herrings that the stored rations barely seem necesary. Daniel is troubled by family pressures and a desperate need to succeed at something. Mike has a dark secret and still more disturbing behaviour patterns which the crew, at least initially, put down to sleepwalking. Lexi (Sophie Skelton), the fourth crew member, brings a measure of youthful angst as she’s worried that he boyfriend is cheating on her; and Megan of course, has a guilty conscience in that regard, though the reasons may not be as simple as they first appear. She also has a troubled relationship with her mother. That is, perhaps, not surprising. No sensible adult would let these unstable young people run a cake stall together, let alone head out to sea.

The story is, indeed, somewhat over-egged, and one wishes that Losasso and Skaugen had reeled themselves back a bit and allowed one or two of its elements to resonate more fully. The busy introduction of additional problems means that tension doesn’t get the time to build as it should, and nor do we get the chance to fully appreciate the danger posed by the elements. Nevertheless, the capable actors all work hard and acquit themselves well. The boat makes a fascinating set and Losasso uses it well. The central elements of the mystery hold up fairly well, and the inherent terror in four tiny humans pitting themselves against the fury of the Atlantic goes a long way towards keeping viewers immersed.

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