DailyView: Day 219, Movie 306

Tonight’s DailyView comes from Disney +, and it is a movie that is the answer to the question, “What if Treasure Island The Swiss Family Robinson had a baby?” The answer is Shipwrecked.

A Norwegian film based on Oluf Falck-Ytter’s book Haakon Haakonsen: En Norsk Robinson stars Stian Smestad and Gabriel Byrne. Yes, that Gabriel Byrne.

Haakon (Stian Smestad) was a young boy whose father came back from sea with a terribly injured leg. He would not be able to go back out to sea and, because of that, the family would lose their farm. Haakon volunteered to head out on a two year voyage to make enough money to save the farm.

Once on the ship, however, he came across Lt. John Merrick (Gabriel Byrne) who had plans to kill the captain and take over the ship. Merrick was successful in his attempt, but the ship gets wrecked in a storm and Haakon is stranded on a deserted island.

On the island, he discovered a treasure left there by Merrick and he began planning for the day when Merrick would return.

He was accompanied on the trip by family friend Jens (Trond Peter Stamsø Munch) and a stowaway they met named Mary (Louisa Milwood-Haigh).

The film was a family adventure with reasonably likeable actors in a story we have seen 100 times. There are very few surprises in the plot (although the strange appearance of a gorilla in the middle of the film was odd- especially since we never see the gorilla again), and the acting was so so.

Still, it is a quick watch and fun enough as a film for the whole family. There are certainly worse films made for young viewers that are pretending to be family films. Shipwrecked has a few moments and is not a waste of time. Maybe that is not a rave review, but still…