The second I turned off Castaway, I thought to myself, "Wow. That was epic. Huge. Gorgeous. Powerful. I wish I'd seen that in the theater". A couple hours later, I realized I'd just watched a two-and-a-half-hour long Fed-Ex commercial.

Tom Hanks may be the only man in the world that could act out the yellow pages and make it appealing and easy to watch. No matter what role he's in, he's just like that nice guy across the street. That may be his problem. Cast Away is the ultimate example of the films he's in: highly entertaining, but in the grand scheme of things, pretty benign. The only thing that separated this film from, say, Forrest Gump, was the blatancy of its commercialism. Only Top Gun sold out this much.

Ignoring its corporate leanings, we have roughly and hour and a half of magic. It would be easy for a film of this genre to slowly creep into melodrama, but this one never does. It's the classic struggle of man against nature, pure and simple, never played for dramatic effect or pathos. It's just there, matter-of-fact; the poor guy trying to get a fire started and nearly killing himself during an escape attempt. Tom Hanks is really wonderful. He plays a Fed Ex management-type guy whose plane crashes, leaving him stranded somewhere in Fiji.

Fiji is so beautiful. If the movie were just 180 minutes of Fiji footage, that would have been even better. You know what would have been really great? If Chuck (Tom Hanks' character) had never even left Fiji. Because it's everything that happens after (Spoiler! Spoiler! Oh, who am I kidding?) he gets rescued that hurts this film.

Someone who spends five years in a deserted island is bound to have a few issues to work out before becoming a functional member of society again. The only problem Chuck has is that his girlfriend (Helen Hunt) married somebody else. He seems on the verge of mental collapse toward the end of his stay on the island, but he gets back home and he's right as rain again, no nightmares or anything. He should have bigger fish to fry, but we're spoon-fed this love story and never given any hint of what's really going on in his head.

As a rabid Law & Order fan, I was intrigued to hear Chris Noth plays the role of Helen Hunt's new husband. He's only in one scene, and it's pretty forgettable. There's no reason for him to be in here at all. I expected him to say, "I'm Detective Logan; can I ask you a few questions?" when he opened his mouth. She's married; so what? Noth and Hunt have no scenes together; we have no evidence to suggest that Chuck's reappearance in her life is causing her any conflict, which is supposed to be the whole point.

Fans of Titanic will probably like Cast Away a lot, because of the love story and the sweeping epic-ness of it.


Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12