Reviews

The documentary is about a true story, a human experiment in the 1970's. Films I have seen about such experiments have been interesting so far. How about an idea of crossing the Atlantic on a small raft with unknown people? That is mind-blowing, huh? On top of that, the sailors would be chosen from different cultures and backgrounds, selected by a researcher who is also on board.

The Swedish captain is the only experienced sailor on board. She and the rest of the crew are selected by the researcher Santiago Genovés. I had never heard of him nor the actual experiment before watching The Raft.

Archive footage from the actual raft is great stuff, but it looks too good to be "true" at times. In a way that it could have been shot by a group of friends having fun on a boat. I do believe there has been hours of film footage from the journey to choose from. Both the happy and horrible moments. I do not want to spoil it, so I am not telling more about the footage.

Santiago Genovés desperately wanted to see some kind of primitive behavior on Acali, as the raft was called. Genovés is portrayed himself to have been mentally off-tuned. He tried to manipulate and provoke the crew so that he could to see more conflicts and violence.

Hearing the original crew members to open up about their well-kept secrets, feelings and memories is touching. The replica of the raft is very well made but studio athmosphere is not an ocean. The reunion on "the raft" after decades is a great idea and makes the crew recall some details.

There are still many questions after seeing The Raft and probably I need to find out myself if I want to know what happened after all. I expected something different, but it was worth seeing this film!

What a wonderful vision of the time of ours. How it was in the 2010's. The plot is not special and it's only one little fictitious story among others. But the set, locations, people and many details are as realistic as they can get. Unfortunately, I guess that the real "value" of the movie will be understood later, in the 2050's, the 60's, maybe even later. I believe this movie will not be forgotten for good.

The feature reminds me of Taking off (1971), which was a mind-blowing time machine experience for me, who never really experienced the 1970's. The Florida Project will be the movie for the next generation.

I am not American, but I had so good time watching the movie. It was surprisingly very-very-very entertaining and made me laugh out loud several times. Which is rare.

The idea is simply extraordinary and the production is generally a success. It's fascinating as you can keep the feeling of "yeah-this-could-really-be-happening" because the comedy is just so well done. While you know it could not be happening. It's hard to explain.

Definitely not waste of time but good-quality fun.

Briefly, the movie is way better than I expected. Not a masterpiece, nothing special but worth watching. I have no deeper analysis. Period.

Except one 'detail' bothering me. I know it bothers very few of us, so please don't take me too seriously, just because I could not take the movie seriously. I happen to be a Finn, who has survived in frosty forests for the most of his miserable life.

The sub-zero conditions are hilariously unrealistic in the movie. There has to be a reason for this, right? There must be cold somewhere in Canada in winters. Maybe the production was late or something. I don't mean movies should always be realistic, but come on...

It is obviously very cold season, if not exceptionally cold winter. Characters get severe injuries of cold. Kind of damage not being possible without roughly -20°C (or -4°F) and strong wind. But as there is seemingly not that windy, it would be -40°C (or the same in °F) if not even under that. Without proper clothing you go NUMB in that environment. Then it knocks you out for good. Quickly. Before you become a half-frozen zombie.

Eyebrows seem to collect heavy ice layer, but breathing is hardly visible in most of the scenes. The ice layer usually builds up of moisture of your own breathe. Snowing looks like a rain. Because it is so warm it is practically raining.

The structure of snow around looks like it is wet and melting. Winterly rays of sun are too weak to have any effect on ice. The forest looks more like how it could look like in June in Finland... It must be around +5...10°C.

In Finland we call that summer. We go out and celebrate those rare moments of warmth, preferably naked. Well... just being honest, just paid attention to these facts, relevant or not :)