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Plot Outline: After their young son is killed in a tragic car accident Sailor John Ingram (Sam Neill) and his wife Rae (Nicole Kidman) go on a cruise together in their yacht, the Saracen, in an attempt to deal with their grief. One day, adrift in the middle of the dead calm sea, their isolation is interrupted when they spot a schooner in the distance and a distressed man, Hughie (Billy Zane), rowing furiously away from it on a dingy. He tells them he’s abandoning his sinking ship after everyone else on board died of food poisoning ten days earlier. The husband, suspicious of the young man’s story, decides to investigae. He takes Hughie’s dingy and rows out to the sinking vessel, leaving his wife alone with the clearly unstable young man. Hughie, figuring out that his cover is blown, wrestles control of the Saracen out of Rae’s hands, kidnapping her and leaving John stranded on the sinking ship with a whole bunch of rotting corpses. Stupidity ensues. |
| The Review |
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My main problem with the movie is that all the events occur because of stupid choices the characters make. A mentally unstable man comes on board his boat and the first thing the experienced sailor does is to leave him alone with his wife while he rows out to the sinking vessel. It never occurs to him to radio for help or to just move his own boat closer to the sinking one so it will be easier to get on board. He tells his wife to load their gun and keep it with her, which, of course, she doesn’t do because she’s an idiot. Rae has quite a few chances to push Hughie overboard, but she never does. She drugs Hughie and then, instead of staying out of his way until the drugs kick in, she goes back into the room and almost gets strangled by him. She actually holds the gun to his throat but doesn’t shoot him. The stupidity just goes on and on.
| The Conclusion |
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