AllMovie

Silent film enthusiasts will love Fatty and Mabel Adrift, but even those who have a real resistance to "pre-talkies" will probably find the film engaging -- if they will only give it a chance. It's true that most of the humor in Adrift is somewhat familiar to modern audiences, and is also a bit tame. There's slapstick, but it's not pitched to the raucous level to which many Keystone endeavors aspired. Instead, Adrift concentrates a bit more on charm, on finding warm and appreciate chuckles instead of going only for out-and-out belly laughs. Adrift also is surprisingly good at creating tension and suspense out of the situation the title characters find themselves in. It's not the "serious" kind of tension and suspense, as the viewer know that nothing terrible will really happen, but it does cause the viewer to find himself thinking, "Can we get them saved already!?" Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle finds some nice directorial touches, including the well-known "shadow kiss" moment, and he's thoroughly appealing throughout. Even more so is the delicious Mabel Normand, whose special magic is given a fine showcase here. If Adrift's situations are a bit old hat now, it still manages to delight.