Even Tom Hanks can't solve all problems

Rating: 7/10 (5 May 2001)

What a time everyone would have, moaning about this movie if Tom Hanks weren't in it - too long; too thin; disjointed; inconclusive ending; longest product placement in the history of cinema! But because of his presence most of these criticisms fade away, and in any case the film probably wouldn't have been made without him. The majority of the audience, including me, are happy to watch Hanks, whatever he's doing on screen, because of his charisma and sheer acting ability.
But there are some faults with this movie that Hanks cannot solve, and at least one where he must bear some responsibility. To start with the latter, I just don't think he does enough in the early scenes to make Chuck Noland the time-driven man that the movie needs to make its point that there is more to life than rushing around, watching the clock, and meeting deadlines. Yes, he's a busy, diligent executive, who possibly cares as much for FedEx as for his lover Kelly (Helen Hunt), but on a personal level he doesn't come over as particularly harrassed or obsessive; I don't really take him seriously when he's shouting at the Russian operatives.

We must blame the producers and director, Robert Zemeckis, for other problems. A major one is that by omitting a proper rescue scene the movie misses an opportunity for dramatic action (and good-feel action to balance the all-too-realistic air-crash) and also cheats the audience of the release of emotion and tension it deserves after sticking with Chuck through his long ordeal. The cut from the moment of rescue to Noland a few weeks later flying home is too abrupt.
Another complaint is that, though I have no quarrel with the ending as regards the plot, the locale where Bettina Peterson lives, which we've also seen at the beginning of the movie, is just too empty, flat and boring. I'm sure Zemickis had good reasons for choosing this location, but he doesn't seem to have had the visual appearance of the movie much in mind. (If he simply wanted to convey remoteness, why not have her live in the mountains or deep in the everglades!)
Hanks has now become a movie icon in a very literal sense - the audience enters a cinema where he is starring with much the same feeling of veneration as does the congregation entering a church. This near-idolatry is reinforced by the parts he plays - almost invariably men of charm, integrity, and in Cast Away courage, tenacity and resourcefulness. It would do both him and his fans good to play a less saintly role; and this may be the case in The Road to Perdition, now in production, where he's due to play a killer.