CAST AWAY

A modern day Robinson Crusoe story weaved by actor Tom Hanks himself along with screenwriter William Broyles and directed by the man who gave us that classic, Forrest Gump- Robert Zemeckis. Wondering why I’m not talking of that one instead- after all it won Hanks his second Academy Award. Here’s why.
(For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, read no further)
Hanks plays Chuck Noland, a FedEx efficiency genius. When his plane crashes in the South Pacific, Chuck spends the next four years on an island, all alone. The film carefully avoids the random island clichés. There are no sharks, no natives, no survivor cameos. There’s not even a musical score, the world’s laziest trick to steer emotions. There is just the sound of water, wind, insects and Chuck talking to a volleyball he names Wilson.
Sounding dull? It’s everything but. Hanks performance is a lesson in acting as he pulls off the part of a man losing his sense of himself in fractional gradations with masterful ease. Cast Away maybe a lesser talked about movie when you compare it to Forrest Gump or Philadelphia or Saving Private Ryan, yet it has the clear distinction of being the only Tom Hanks movie to star no one but Tom Hanks.
There has been some talk about how the run-up to the crash sequence and the tragedy itself is a bit over-the-top, especially as it occurs only hours after Chuck has handed a small yet conspicuously ring-sized box to his girlfriend Kelly, played by Helen Hunt in the movie. And of course the hero survives because we’re just about ten minutes or so into the movie. But, skeptics be damned, Cast Away’s finest moments consist of Hanks parading around the beach solo- I’d never have thought it’d be such a gratifying experience-just watching someone doing something. Chuck learns how to make a fire, catches fish from the water, deals with a toothache, and Hanks turns all this into something immensely enjoyable and terribly unbearable, strangely at the same time- which is a colossal testament to his artistry.
(For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, but are still reading, read further at your own risk)
Well. Chuck does make his escape eventually (obviously). And once he is back in civilization is where the movie bogs down a bit. There is the angle of the lost love (which could have been done without), and the angle of Chuck’s rehabilitation and reconditioning has been sort of painted over, which is sad and, frankly, unrealistic.
But until then, Cast Away is funny, fierce and heartfelt. Tom Hanks delivers an emotional tour de force and it wouldn’t be too far from the truth to say that everything else in the movie, the supporting cast, the editing, the camerawork - everything else is completely swept aside to make way for our survivor.