Six Days Seven Nights (1998)

reviewed by
Jerry Saravia


SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS (1998)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Reviewed back in June 1998

"Six Days, Seven Nights" is the umpteenth version of "The African Queen" crossed with Lina Wertmuller's "Swept Away," and a dash of Indiana Jones for good measure. Or you can look at the film as a combination of highlights from Harrison Ford's most popular movies. Either way, it doesn't work.

Harrison Ford is a gruffly airline pilot hired to fly a glamorous fashion writer (Anne Heche) and her fiancé (David Schwimmer) to Tahiti. Trouble is she is called in at the last minute to oversee a photo shoot. Once she's on the mini cargo plane with Ford, they crash-land on another tropical island with no inhabitants. But wouldn't you know that some drug lords and pirates are there and spot the bickering twosome and, wait a minute, I thought this was an update of "African Queen"? Or are we in Indiana Jones territory?

Ford exudes charisma and strength, but he doesn't have much in the way of chemistry with Anne Heche (and no, it has nothing to do with her lesbian nature, though as of 2001, she is considering marriage with a heterosexual). Heche overacts to the hilt in a performance that demanded more than desperation, but both characters never seem undernourished or in fear of never being found in a deserted island. The just bicker back and forth, but it is the kind of bickering that might work initially if it went beyond mere bickering. Heche almost made me wish Melanie Griffith replaced her - Griffith's voice is grating to be sure but it worked in "Working Girl" opposite Ford.

David Schwimmer is the sort-of-welcome comic relief, but I never believed for a second that he was in love with Heche (again, nothing to do with her lesbian nature). Let's it put this way: for a beautiful, vivacious woman like Heche, there is no contest between Ford and Schwimmer in the romantic lead department.

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