True Spirit – Film Review

An Australian teenager plans to become the youngest sailor to have travelled the world alone. In doing so, the intrepid 16-year-old not only seeks to fulfil her dream, she also faces her greatest fears at the same time.

Even people who are fascinated by sailing are sure to find Sarah Spillane‘s True Spirit to be an extremely cheaply made, tiresome bore that is never quite able to strongly tell the amazing true story of an Australian teenager named Jessica Watson, who was the youngest person to sail solo, non-stop around the world.

There’s a certain quality to this movie that makes it feel like it was made on a college student’s budget, even though this is a Netflix film. The cinematography by Danny Ruhlmann is amateur at best and the lighting is off every so often. It’s strange to think that studios approved the film when it looked the way it did.

Regardless, the biggest issue with True Spirit is that it’s just boring. Plain and simple. It’s a shame because the true story of Jessica Watson is genuinely fascinating and inspiring. The script by Cathy Randall, Rebecca Banner, and Sarah Spillane is filled with tropes, and way too much time is spent on Jessica’s personal life, and not enough time on the actual sailing aspects.

Even when we do see Jessica sailing, it’s hard to get caught up in it at times due to the filmmaking. That’s not to say that the film is totally bad because there are some bright spots along the way. There are some moments in which the film strikes an emotional chord and there are some seriously feel-good beats sprinkled throughout.

The ending in particular is sure to leave you smiling and feeling hopeful. It’s a genuinely wholesome film with a remarkable message at its core. The acting is also quite great, namely from Teagan Croft who portrays Jessica. She injects this role with such a sense of vibrancy and charisma. She’s got that childlike wonder nailed down and it shines in every single scene.

Unfortunately though, Croft’s talents deserved a better script. True Spirit is not one of the worst movies I’ve seen in a long time, but it’s certainly quite the major disappointment. Perhaps one day we will get the definitive movie that’ll tell the remarkable true story of Jessica Watson. This movie failed to do so.

True Spirit may feature strong performances, but its script and visual aspects are too poorly done to look past.