ACTION POINT

R, 85 minutes. Through today only at Waterford, Lisbon. Johnny Knoxville stars as the proprietor of a safety-challenged theme park threatened by the arrival of a nearby mega-amusement park. A review wasn’t available.

ADRIFT

1/2 PG-13, 96 minutes. Through tonight only at Niantic, Stonington. Still playing at Waterford, Westbrook, Lisbon. The opening moments of “Adrift” announce that we are watching “a true story,” which should by rights permit me to discuss a few matters freely. Recorded facts — even when they concern people who are not especially well-known — cannot really be spoiled, and any good movie that claims history as inspiration should be able to withstand even the most detailed of plot summaries. Certainly it gives away nothing to note that this lovers-in-peril drama was adapted from Tami Oldham Ashcraft’s 2002 memoir about how she and her fiance, Richard Sharp, set sail on a 4,000-mile journey from Tahiti to San Diego, only to find themselves in the path of a devastating Pacific hurricane. Yet having seen the movie, which compresses a traumatic 41-day ordeal into a swift, economical 96 minutes, my instinct is to veer toward caution. Not because the details of Oldham Ashcraft and Sharp’s ill-fated 1983 voyage are unknown but because “Adrift” — the latest in a string of visually persuasive, dramatically spotty survival pictures directed by Baltasar Kormakur (“Everest,” “The Deep”) — has twisted a few of those details in service of its own clever narrative agenda. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this. A biographical drama should be judged by a higher standard than strict historical accuracy, and some of “Adrift’s” liberties are canny and effective. The movie opens after the hurricane has already come and gone, leaving a dazed, injured Tami (Shailene Woodley) to sift through the partial wreckage of the yacht. We share

in her disorientation as she climbs her way to the deck, calling out frantically for Richard (Sam Claflin), and finds that the storm has severely damaged the boat and blown it far off-course. There is an authentic poignancy to Tami and Richard’s connection, buoyed by the actors’ sweet, unforced chemistry. As seen in her best performances (in “The Descendants,” “The Spectacular Now” and the HBO miniseries “Big Little Lies”), Woodley has a gift for conjoining inner strength and vulnerability until the two are all but indistinguishable. Her flinty American prickliness finds both a loving embrace and a gentle foil in Claflin’s soft eyes and mellow, British-accented charm. It’s the primacy of that bond that keeps both Tami and the movie going even after disaster strikes and the long, arduous work of survival begins. — Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR