With a Nick Drake song figuring as the central musical element, it doesn’t take long to figure out that Deep Water is about more than a bunch of British guys sailing around the world. The film focuses on one unlikely entrant in a 1968 single-man circumnavigation competition: Donald Crowhurst. While any of the other eight competitors’ adventures would have made for a compelling tale, Crowhurst’s lack of extensive sailing experience had him marked from the race’s start as the one to watch.Doomed to fail, but determined to succeed, Crowhurst’s bumbles, near-fatal errors and, eventually, his deception and descent into fatal psychosis make for riveting material. The work by co-directors Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell is misleadingly dry; what begins as a straightforward retelling of a now-legendary sailing story unfolds into a devastating and emotionally rich piece of cinema. Deeply researched and compellingly presented, Deep Water is as much about one man’s misadventures on the ocean as it is about loneliness, desperation and the danger of dreams.