Robert Zemeckis directs Tom Hanks in Cast Away, the story of a FedEx worker who gets stranded on an uninhabited island after a plane crash. The last time they collaborated together they made Forrest Gump, truly a landmark film. Cast Away is a solid film, but is nowhere near a masterpiece. Tom Hanks carries the movie but gets upstaged by a volleyball. Tom Hanks has won multiple Oscars and Golden Globes for Best Actor and a volleyball ends up having the best performance in the movie. Wilson didn’t even have any lines.
Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a systems analyst for FedEx. He’s obsessed with time and making things more efficient. He’s got a girlfriend (Helen Hunt) and life is pretty good. Then he ends up stranded on a deserted island in the South Pacific. He spends the next four years fighting for survival with only a volleyball and a picture of Helen Hunt to keep him going. After four years of isolation he manages to build a raft and escape the island.
He returns home and there’s nothing waiting for him. His girlfriend has moved on, gotten married, and had a kid. He lost Wilson at sea. He doesn’t have a Facebook account. He doesn’t have anything except for some stupid mantra that “tomorrow the sun will rise” so he has to keep going. Then he delivers the FedEx package that he kept for four years and never opened. But he delivers it to the chick that sent it, not to the recipient. He works for FedEx; he should know how deliveries work. The movie ends with Chuck standing at a crossroads wondering which road to take and where life will take him next. If you like deserted island movies, Tom Hanks, or vague and unsatisfying endings, Cast Away is the movie for you.
Critically Rated at 11/17
Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young
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