It's hard to quantify this odd little film.Based on a true story, it is somewhat interesting yet ultimately unsatisfying; moderately thrilling, yet strangely dull; occasionally uplifting yet mostly depressing.The most consistent thing about it is how inconsistent it is.For the majority of the scenes at sea I despised each of the men and hoped that they would die horribly, yet when they reached land and were welcomed with such contempt and hostility by the media and the public I found myself rooting for them and hoping for their vindication.In essence I think I would have to describe this film as a maddeningly uneven depiction of a maddeningly unlikely true story about a maddeningly unlikable quartet of men. How close to the truth it really is will never be known, and that is perhaps the most maddening thing of all.Frustrating in many respects, yet worth a watch if you're in the right mood.

120 days at sea with no food or water. How did these four Blokes from New Zealand survive? That's the entire premise for this movie and relates the true story of these brave hapless souls. Its mesmerizing viewing for the movie audience and I strongly recommend ABANDONED (10 stars) for all ages since there is no nudity or swearing. Why this movie didn't get a bigger audience is beyond me. Perhaps its because no "A" list celebrity starred in it or because it wasn't "shot" in Hollywood by a major studio, I don't know. Its movies like these, that a person discovers on there own, that makes movie watching worthwhile. The script in ABANDONED is good, it has excellent production quality, its well directed and the actors are very credible. SEE THIS MOVIE!

It's not a bad movie, the only problem is that none of them looks like being lost in the sea for 119 days. I'll take that as a production error, for instance, movies like Cast Away, Life of Pi, ... actors would gradually "look" like they've been lost in the sea for that long (skinny, tanned, sun burned, dehydrated, messy long hairs, dirty, torn clothes, ... etc..). But in the movie "Abandoned", actors look about the same from the beginning to the end (check Dominic Purcell's hair ...). Also, most of these types of movies, it will either emphasize the scientific/technical parts, or the mental/spiritual aspects of human, but this movie just very lightly grazed through any of it, and it's a movie that leaves no impact, no thoughts after.

Made for TV movie (true story) about a capsized trimaran yacht and how it's crew survived for over 100 days. Well done and reasonably accurate about the sailing offshore in a performance multi-hull. Unlike most disaster / redemption films this one obviously was done by people who knew their topic.I enjoyed this film as unlike most it made me feel they did not dumb down the content assuming everyone watching could not truly understand the situation. As a sailor I found this film quite realistic.I feel the actors did a good job of representing the people in the crisis and they avoided overacting with restraint. I'd heard about this situation and the controversy, so seeing the film added a lot of context to news from the other side of the world.