Adrift (12A)

Starring: Laura Neiva, Vincent Cassel, Débora Bloch

Heitor Dhalia's coming-of-age drama, though separated by continents and language, is slightly reminiscent of Christine Jeffs' Rain in its intense focus on adolescent anguish and sexuality.

The newcomer Laura Neiva is remarkable as 14-year-old Filipa, coltish older daughter of parents (Vincent Cassel, Débora Bloch) on the verge of splitting up. Holidaying in a seaside resort on the Brazilian coast, Filipa thinks she knows the cause of the familial rupture – her novelist father is having an affair with a glamorous American (Camilla Belle) – but in the tradition of curious adolescents, she discovers things aren't always what they seem.

Dhalia sets such a languorous pace that it sometimes feels as if the film is moving in circles, but she has a lyrical eye and an instinctive sympathy with young actors. The bronzing, yolky light, perhaps intended as a trick projection of memory, is nicely handled by the cinematographer Ricardo Della Rosa.