Row (2025) Review

Matthew Losasso’s Row is a chilly, occasionally compelling, and often frustrating psychological thriller set adrift in the cold, unforgiving waters of the North Atlantic. It opens with a bloodied Megan (Bella Dayne) washing ashore in a rowing vessel that seems more like a crime scene than a record-breaking achievement. With no trace of her crewmates and her memories muddled by trauma, she becomes the focus of an inquiry that demands answers she isn’t ready, or able, to give.

Portrayed across interwoven timelines, Row shifts between Megan’s convalescence in a remote Scottish guesthouse and flashbacks to the doomed transatlantic expedition she undertook with three others. It’s a doomed voyage that shows the slow unravelling of camaraderie, purpose, and sanity, as the sea proves as hostile as the people trapped together on the fragile boat.

The scenes set in the past are the strongest. Claustrophobia clings to every sequence aboard the vessel, and Losasso makes clever use of tight camera angles and sound design to stress the physical and psychological confines. There’s no escape and no respite. To begin with, the crew, consisting of captain Daniel (Akshay Khanna), Megan, her friend Lexie (Sophie Skelton), and last-minute addition Mike (Nick Skaugen), seem focused. But as the days stretch on and the rations are consumed, tempers fray, and fractures appear. The attempt at team unity disintegrates into paranoia and blame.

It’s in these moments that Row delivers its tension. Who’s telling the truth? Who’s remembering things correctly? Are Megan’s feverish visions memories? Lies? hallucinations? The script dances around these questions with a teasing quality that keeps the viewer leaning in. But just when the film threatens to build toward something devastating, it shies away, folding into ambiguity instead of revelation, much like a recoiling wave. This may be an intentional choice, but it can feel evasive rather than enigmatic.

The structure also causes issues. The film’s two-hour runtime works against its sense of urgency. The scenes on land involving Megan’s silent suffering and sparse questioning from local authorities lack momentum. While Bella Dayne brings a compelling, haunted quality to her role, the script doesn’t give her enough dialogue or definition to build a truly engaging protagonist. Her trauma is evident, but her personality remains oddly absent.

Visually, though, the film excels. The cinematography is often beautiful with drone shots of the vast ocean contrasting starkly with the intimate, increasingly desperate scenes on board. The sea is dark, immense and indifferent. The production makes the most of its limitations, with practical effects and clever staging selling the illusion of isolation and threat.

Where Row stumbles is in its lack of focus. There are suggestions of supernatural elements, questions of guilt and memory, even a stab at commentary on ambition and ego. But the film never quite settles. It picks up themes and discards them, sometimes within the same scene. The result is a film that feels more like a collection of interesting moments than a cohesive whole.

Ambitious, atmospheric, technically strong and with some great twists, Row is a film with potential that too often floats just out of reach.

Row (2025) premiered at the Raindance Film Festival on 21st June 2025.

Movie Rating:

Row trailer