A quiet tour-de-force for Hanks

Rating: 7/10 (19 March 2006)

Federal Express delivery manager Tom Hanks ends up stranded alone on an uninhabited island after a hellacious plane crash. Gorgeous-looking picture does have heavy-handed moments (Hanks looking and acting like a savage after a few years, presumably to make a point about man's raw beginnings), but they don't detract from the extremely well-made, well-paced proceedings. It doesn't delve deeply into its characters, but then it doesn't really have the time. It is a movie about personal survival, a litmus-test, and it's shrewdly written so that we in the audience find ourselves asking, "Would I have thought of that?" or "What would I do in that situation?" "Cast Away" is engrossing and satisfying; it didn't make the kind of big impression on me wherein I'm still haunted by it the following day, but Hanks gives a very sturdy performance (although his weight fluctuation is a little erratic) and, in support, Helen Hunt is natural and inoffensive. *** from ****