Pleasantly surprised

Rating: 9/10 (16 June 2002)

Warning, spoilers below.
I was very pleasantly surprised by this movie, though admittedly my expectations may have been fairly low. Nonetheless I felt that the movie was deeper and more meaningful than the typical Hollywood fare, while being plenty entertaining, giving audiences a chance to get a good look at Tom Hanks at his best.
I was expecting a re-hash of "Survivor" modus, such as a bunch of shots of Tom Hanks eating bugs followed by a smarmy reunion with his cute blonde wife in a neatly contrived finale at the end. Instead I was surprised by the complex themes examining the contrast between typical modern life of abundance and a scant life spent in solitude. The pace of the movie was slow and contemplative, especially by Hollywood standards, without being boring. This sparse set gave Hanks room to give a very personal and entertaining performance, and gave audiences time to digest the deceptively complex themes. The ending was satisfyingly uncompromising.
The opening scenes show Chuck (Hanks' character) enforcing somewhat exaggerated yet realistic capitalistic regimens on simpler foreign cultures by training them to sort FedEx packages and measuring their competence down to the second. But before long Chuck finds himself stranded on a small island with nothing to do, where the smallest unit of time is a day.
During what becomes a multi-year period of isolation, Chuck and the audience are able to reflect on what is simplest and most important in life. And Chuck learns the important lesson that life is so precious that it is probably worth living even if it seems unlivable, and that anything can happen, both good and bad.
Chuck's eventual personal transition that leads to his return to the modern world is reminiscent of Buddhism's "Concept of Emptiness", wherein you must truly have nothing before you can gain enlightenment. Chuck's perspective on the modern world after his ordeal should cause the audience to reflect upon their own position in the same world, and ask themselves how they would react if they lost things that they currently deem essential.