|
 |
Cast Away
|
|
Tim "High Tide" Wann (Columnist)
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Shameless plug. Thanks Tom. |
|
|
|
|
While it's truly amazing that Tom Hanks could single handedly carry over half of this movie by himself, I felt the last quarter of the film was stuck in low tide.
Efficiency guru Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks of Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump) is the man FedEx has hired to tighten up shop in some less shipping-friendly countries. He lives by the clock, by his pager, and by his air travel miles. He is, however, a good man at heart and manages to keep a healthy relationship with his love Kelly (Helen Hunt of What Women Want) in spite of so much time spent away carrying out his job duties. Over holiday dinner with family, Chuck is paged like an on call doctor and is sent airborne to fix another work-related mess and has to leave Kelly once again. While en route, a relentless storm causes the plane to dive bomb into the Pacific ocean and leaves Chuck stranded on a deserted island with no hope for rescue since the plane was already far off it's intended course. The plane crash is by far the most exciting ten minutes of the film with some outstanding visuals to feast on.
Chuck is forced to learn the essentials of survival in the harsh face of being stripped of all the comforts of home he once enjoyed. No phone, no lights, no motorcars... not a single luxury. Like Robinson Crusoe... ok, I know, kill the Gilligan's Island theme, man. While trying to find food, build shelter, start fire, and even perform some dental surgery on himself, FedEx packages and a sea-water swollen pilot from his downed plane wash up on shore. One package in particular is a volleyball which becomes Chuck's only friend and means of dialog over the next hour or so, which he aptly names "Wilson". If it's anyone who should get Best Supporting Actor this year, it should be this volleyball. Never has an inanimate object been given so much screen time and play such a key character in a film before. And for a sporting good... he's not a bad actor! He triggers one of the more heart wrenching scenes in the film as a matter of fact.
Kudos to Tom Hanks for sculpting what could have been a long and tedious two and a half hours of film into a captivating solo project that truly held my interest and displayed some phenomenal acting ability that only he and a handful of others could have pulled off. There is also some beautiful cinematography that Zemeckis always delivers, although I think setting this story on a lush South Pacific island with its serene night skies and tranquil blue waters could have painted a masterpiece even on a handy-cam... so Zemeckis can't take ALL the credit for the film's beauty. However the grand scope of the island and its sheer mass in respect to one lonely man is well created and adds to the crushing weight of helplessness that Hanks feels.
As you have seen from the trailers, Hanks does finally get back home after four lonely years on the island... and it's here that the film seems to peter out. I won't spoil anything, but it left me a little unsatisfied. It just felt to me that after seeing Hanks battle four years of braving the elements and hanging on to his sanity and dear life that we might be given a bit more to chew on for the ride home. I'm truly glad they didn't opt for the convenient ending that most would hope for... oops, ok, I spoiled it some, my bad! But more time spent tying up the ending and weaving some more interplay with the actually animate characters might have rounded out what was up that point a really wonderful film. Seems like for the first 3/4 of the film, Hanks is abandoned at sea... and the last 1/4 it is we that are abandoned.
Cast Away is not a poor movie by any means. It's very enjoyable and will probably satisfy most moviegoers that can sit through this kind of film. The vision and scale alone will pleasantly engulf you, and any fan of Hanks should not miss seeing him in this kind of solo role. However, I think the hype surrounding this film was a little excessive and and although any awards Hanks may get for this film are well deserved, the film as a whole didn't sail as smoothly across our hearts and minds as they might have intended.
6/10
|
|
|
Cast Away
Starring:
Tom Hanks
Helen Hunt
Valerie Wildman
Geoffrey Blake
Directed by:
Robert Zemeckis
Written by:
William Broyles, Jr.
Rated:
PG-13
Briefly, how we rate the movies we see...
| 10 |
_Perfect
|
| 9 |
_Excellent
|
| 8 |
_Great
|
| 7 |
_Very Good
|
| 6 |
_Good
|
| 5 |
_Not Bad
|
| 4 |
_Not Good
|
| 3 |
_Pretty Bad
|
| 2 |
_Really Bad
|
| 1 |
_Suck Ass
|
| 0 |
_Feces on Film
|
|
DMLives@gmail.com
|
