CAST AWAY (2000) Reviewed by Jerry Saravia January 13th, 2001
When it comes to Tom Hanks, it is difficult to criticize him. Why you may ask? Because as an actor, he becomes so enveloped in his roles that it is hard to notice when he is or isn't acting - the Jimmy Stewart of our generation simply becomes the characters he plays without any obvious tics or methods to his madness. And make no mistake, Hanks is not playing himself, he is acting but since it is invisible, it is harder to trace. From his Oscar-winning turn in "Philadelphia" to last year's sympathetic prison guard in "The Green Mile," Hanks is one of our best actors because he consistently surprises audiences and critics alike in his choice of roles. As the efficient Chuck Noland, Hanks has his most demanding role to date, eschewing his soft side for a more snippy side considering the location he is placed in - the rough terrain of a lost island.
At the start of the film (in a far too long prologue), Chuck is already in a race against time considering he is a Fed-Ex employee. He chastises the Russians in Moscow for late arrivals of packages (he keeps timers inside packages he self-mails to prove his point). His intent is to keep the business efficient and on the mark, or else the whole company will end up like the U.S. mail.
Chuck barely maintains an intimate relationship with his girlfriend, Kelly (Helen Hunt), whom he tries to propose at Christmas time in good old Memphis (It is no surprise to discover that Chuck is an Elvis lover). Unfortunately, time is another scapegoat as Chuck is off on another trip in his busy work schedule, delivering a package that must arrive overnight to its designated location. He hands Kelly an engagement ring in a box, to be opened when he gets back. And off he goes yet during a catastrophic thunderstorm, the plane crashes near some uncharted island...and if you have seen the trailers for this film, you'll know Chuck becomes a castaway and is thus cast away as well from civilization.
Chuck arrives in this uninhabited island on a deflated raft. Some Fed-Ex packages wash ashore as well, but what is this man going to do? He has no cell phone, no plane, hardly any food except for coconuts (a natural laxative), and is in an island where nobody ever comes through. He has to depend on his survival instincts of course which develop rather quickly, including spearing fish, building fires, gathering wood, making videotape with rope, using roller skates as cutting tools, living inside a cave for shelter, and so on. Chuck is our modern-day Robinson Crusoe without benefit of videographers or unwanted bystanders from the popular "Survivor" show - he is truly an isolated man who finds a partner in a Wilson volleyball.
The scenes on the island are truly awesome, and director Zemeckis is often at his best here evoking long silent pauses in many of these scenes, as it should be. At least we are spared the bickering of Anne Heche and Harrison Ford in the charmless "Six Days, Seven Nights." This is an existential journey for Chuck, left pondering about his existence and his girlfriend Kelly and if he will ever get out of the island. How long can a man talk to a volleyball before becoming insane?
I will not give away too much more of "Cast Away" but I will say that the film's bookends are less stronger than the crux of the story - a man's survival in an unnamed island forced to deal with the losses in his life. This was the same flaw in "Green Mile" and "Saving Private Ryan" - when will Hanks step out of these damn bookends? The last few scenes in the film do work, and there is a level of ambiguity that is much appreciated in these days of cookie-cutter Hollywood movies. But it is not as powerful as all those scenes on the island.
Hanks does some of his best work ever here, exuding a little toughness, snippiness and cynicism about himself and his past and future existence - this may well be Hanks's first existential, fully mature leading man role to date. The transformation from a fastidious workaholic to a harried man ("I just have to keep breathing") is quite affecting to watch.
Helen Hunt, an often bland actress, gives a surprisingly touching performance. Her Kelly is aware that Chuck may not always be there for her because of his strenuous job, and thus becomes aware of loss early on. It's a small role for Hunt but not a thankless one (as it was in "What Women Want"), and about as magnetic as her work in the Oscar-winning "As Good as it Gets."
"Cast Away" is finally about loss and how to deal with it in purely fundamental terms. Being cast away from civilization as we know it may be a greater loss than one can fathom, and Chuck knows it for the period of time he remains on the island. If the opening and closing sequences had been truncated somewhat and if Zemeckis had spent more time on that island, then "Cast Away" would have been a superb motion picture. As it stands, it is a solid entertainment and there are scenes as moving as any I've seen in all of 2000, yet it could have been so much more. Still, my vote stands for "Cast Away," casting aside "Survivor" any day of the week.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://buffs.moviething.com/buffs/faust/
E-mail me with any questions, comments or general complaints at jerry@movieluver.com or at Faust667@aol.com
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