Cast Away

 

[Note: This review may contain material that could be considered spoilers. Proceed with caution.]

 

Cast Away is a film unlike most mainstream Hollywood fare. It's rare to see an art film with a Hollywood budget as Cast Away so clearly is. It's anchored by the acting of one of Hollywood's biggest stars and one of Hollywood's most well known directors, but ends up being quite a deviation from what the typical audience member expects. Using extended takes and slow, contemplative cinematography by veteran Don Burgess, Cast Away, during its finest times, is some of the best filmmaking of the year.

The film has three distinct acts. During the character examining introductory sequence, we see that Chuck is an overzealous FedEx manager who once stole a young child's bike to deliver a package on time. His job takes precedence in his life, overtaking his interests in family and friends as evident from his leaving Christmas dinner early to go to Malaysia to avert a shipping crisis. With a "I'll be right back," he leaves his girlfriend (Helen Hunt) with a small box possibly containing a ring and a promise to open it once he gets back. He jumps on board the plane, expecting a pleasant plane ride to the other side of the Pacific.

But, as could be expected, the plane runs into difficulties and following an strartlingly well executed and photographed crash scene, Noland is left stranded on a deserted island. It is here where he develops his survival techniques and his new relationship with nature. Rather than the idealized beach of sand and palm fronds, the island is a more realistic rock and coral fringed nightmare. Chuck, using whatever he can including the occasional floating FedEx package, is left to survive for years on the island.

Tom Hanks is asked to do the impossible: be the sole character in a film for more than half its running time. Chuck Noland, Hank's character, has been cast upon the shore of a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He's been suriving upon coconut milk and crabs and talking ceaselessly to his new best friend, Wilson, the volleyball. It's surely a difficult part to perform but Hanks is clearly equal to the task, giving (once again) one of the best acting performances of the year. Continuing his unprecedented string of great performances in great movies, Tom Hanks has probably met his most difficult role. It's the most physically demanding part, to be sure, as he had to lose sixty pounds for the second half of the deserted island segment. It's also mentally one of his toughest, as he has to somehow talk to a inanimate object for extended periods of time and not make the conversations laughable. The film rides on the shoulders of its star like no film in recent memory, and to do so was unquestionably a wise choice.

The final act is one that should not have been divulged in the trailers. It's no longer a secret that he makes it back alive. It's unfortunate because the effects of that storyline would have been much more devastating if it were not already known. Decisions before a movie comes out can threaten to cripple a film's impact. Cast Away's trailers unfrotunately ventured too far into this arena.

Except for the final contemplative shot of Chuck Noland at a crossroads of his life (both figuratively and literally) and his indecision of which way to go, the final act is a slightly disappointing conclusion to the artful examination of human nature in the middle of the film. Combined with the somewhat lackluster beginning, it threatens to hinder the effects of the events on the island. Even with it's disappointing uneveness it still ranks as an enjoyable film, one that features one of the finest, most difficult acting performances of the year.

 

On a scale of 1 to 10 gilligans : 7