by John Tillyard, Contributing Writer
Based on a true inspirational story, 16-year-old Australian Jessica Watson (Teagan Croft) sets out to become the youngest person to ever solo sail nonstop around the world. Facing the dangers of high winds and choppy seas, coupled with questions from the media about how safe it is for a young person to spend over 200 days alone at sea, Jessica must face what many feel is an impossible challenge.
True stories like this get a pass regarding the predictable nature of how they play out, because if things didn’t play out the way you expected, they wouldn’t have made a film about it. However, I will retract that pass if the film does one of two things: if it strays a long way from the reality of what happened (Cool Running, for example), or if it attempts to fool me into thinking what will ultimately happen isn’t possible. True Spirit certainly isn’t guilty of the former, other than one fictitious character played by Cliff Curtis; it’s very faithful to the true story of Watson’s journey, but it is a little guilty of the latter. The first significant conflict centers around a collision during a test run a month before the trip, and the resulting media reaction asking if she should be doing this. Even those who don’t know the true story of what happened would be able to guess she did go on the journey. What is the point of using the film’s opening to focus on the idea that a character shouldn’t be doing the very thing that is the film’s story?
Indeed, the story’s opening feels jarring, as if they skipped over the first act. Very little time is given to Jessica’s backstory, explaining why she took up sailing. With the main story beginning only a month before the journey, there needed to be more about her preparation. There is no scene in the opening showing Jessica making the initial decision to sail around the world; therefore, we never see her family or anyone else’s reaction to this decision. The most exciting thing about a biopic, at least for me, is the stuff that happens before any fame or media attention, things even those that know the main story might not know. In the case of True Spirit, the media coverage is already in full swing when the story begins. One early scene is a press conference doing the standard thing where the media hassles the main character, everyone asking questions at once and thrusting microphones at them. But it needed an accurate indication of why the media would be so involved other than Jessica being very young. The scene itself is fine, and I’m not going to critique a story for something that’s not in it, but the fact there is almost nothing before this just left me a bit confused. It doesn’t feel like an opening scene. It feels like something you’d see at the end of the first act.
But while things get off to a rocky start, it becomes much more enjoyable once Jessica departs on her six-month journey. This section is more relaxing and visually enjoyable because Jessica is in her element. No one else is there to tell her that something might go wrong, or that she can’t do this. It gives a good feeling of what it’s like to be on a sailboat on your own, and why people do it for fun. It’s also here where they explain the rules of what she is doing and the magnitude of the challenge facing her. She does a video log, which certainly gives a more human feel to what she is doing. She could have been any regular 16-year-old vlogging her day on Instagram. The frequent communication with her family gives a pleasant togetherness to the whole thing, even if she is alone on the boat. They also have a map in the house showing where she is to give an excellent visual cue of how far she has to go. The scenes where she is on a call with her family are where things feel the most real. I particularly enjoyed how she and her family celebrate Christmas, which has a very wholesome closeness to it. At the same time, however, while there is no bad guy in this, even if they make the media look that way in places, there is a large amount of conflict between Jessica and her parents.
I mentioned before that there isn’t a scene in the opening where Jessica informs her family of her plan to sail around the world. That is true of the beginning, but to be fair, they show this in one of many flashbacks. These flashbacks show Jessica as a much younger girl (Alyla Browne), learning about sailing and developing a real passion for it. As a basic idea, they try to show her first deciding that sailing was what she wanted to do while simultaneously showing her doing that. The problem is, the flashbacks are so brief and tell us nothing we couldn’t have guessed.
The film doesn’t have many special effects, as it covers a boat at sea and a family in their house. But there are some green screen and CGI shots when the boat is in stormy waters. Some of these shots look spectacular and helped to keep me gripped during the story’s most intense moments. Other shots look fake, and several green screen shots of Jessica make it so apparent she’s not there that it takes you out of the experience a bit.
The acting is as decent as I expected from a true-story film. Vivien Turner is particularly impressive as Jessica’s younger sister Hannah, as she is given some funny lines and has the job of addressing the media. Curtis does an okay job as Jessica’s fictitious coach Ben Bryant, although some of the more emotional moments feel like he is forcing it a little. Croft, of course, carries a lot of the film, her character being by herself for most of it, and she does a good job keeping you engrossed in her time on her small boat. At times I felt like I was there with her.
While the story gets off to a slightly unharmonious start, it picks up considerably once our heroine embarks on her historic journey. There is a natural jovial feel to most of the story as everyone does what they can to help and support her during the journey and welcome her home at the end. It just made me feel good inside. It’s certainly not pushing the boundaries or doing anything you’ve yet to see from many other biopics. Still, it does what it sets out to do reasonably well, outside of the opening. I was pleased to see them highlight that Jessica has dyslexia, especially since I’ve lived with the condition my whole life. It also inspired me to read up on the true story this is based on, and I highly recommend others do the same.
Score: 6/10
True Spirit is currently streaming on Netflix
You can read more from John Tillyard, or follow him on Instagram