Safe Harbor (2009)

Directed by: Jerry Jameson | 86 minutes | drama | Actors: Treat Williams, Nancy Travis, Reiley McClendon, Myra Turley, Cameron Monaghan, Justin Alston, Orson Bean, Daniel Berilla, John Colton, Pamela Gray, Kim Morgan Greene, Blake Hood, Sam Jones III, Maitland McConnell, Charlie McDermott, Jimmy O’Heir, Jimmy Ortega, Dan Paulson, Marti Rich, Krista Ryan, Alison Woods

How do you get juvenile criminals back on the right path? Teach them to sail! That’s the philosophy of Robbie (Nancy Travis) and Doug (Treat Williams) Smith. In 1984, the couple started a shelter on the wharf of a marina in Jacksonville, Florida. To this day, derailed adolescents with family problems find a safe home there and learn the intricacies of the seaman’s trade. The idea behind it: if you know the difference between port and starboard and can navigate your sloop safely through the turbulent waters, you will eventually learn to find your way in life. The Smiths appear to be right, as the Safe Harbor Maritime Academy reportedly has a 95 percent success rate. No reform school or juvenile detention center can compete with that. An inspiring story like this naturally asks to be made into a film. In 2009, the year in which the home celebrated its 25th anniversary, the originally religious channel Hallmark therefore released the made-for-TV movie ‘Safe Harbor’.

‘Safe Harbor’ is a film that gives you a warm feeling, but nothing more. Williams and Travis are the radiant centerpiece of the story. Their characters are sympathetic, but not so woolly that the kindness is too thick on top. The Smiths have humor, the ability to put things into perspective and an endless patience. No challenge is too great for them. That everything goes very smoothly is also the weakness of the film. Robbie and Doug won’t be fooled, not even a kid who sets their boat on fire, and after a year of boating, even the most notorious troubled youths have turned into true sailor heroes. As a counterpart to so much goodness, a lady from Youth Care is presented, who constantly gets in the way of the couple without it becoming clear why. Official bodies are bad, it seems. But with love and hoisted sails, any childhood trauma can be brushed away. In real-life formula work there is simply no place for nuances or problems that cannot be solved within an hour and a half. Sympathetic may be ‘Safe Harbor’, he does not convince.