Two Movies In One

Rating: Null/10 (28 February 2004)

Cast Away was two films - one that I very much liked sandwiched between two that I found dull.
As it opens, Chuck Noland (Hanks) is a time obsessed slightly rotund Fed Ex executive. He has everything is life - a good family, a good job, a nubile girlfriend (Hunt). He leaves on Christmas eve for an undefined emergency and has to fly overseas. The plane goes down and the meat of the movie begins.
The second act of Cast Away is brilliant. Hanks is marooned on a island after the plane crash and director Robert Zemeckis makes some very daring moves to strand us with him. No music. Noe other characters. No animals to befriend. And most importantly, no flashbacks to life back home without him. The only other cast member is a volleyball that Hanks uses to maintain his sanity.
The acting here is particularly great, since it is so isolated. We get to sense the various stages that he goes through - shock, desperation, survival, a touch of insanity. This is a performance that truly draws you in.
From this point the movie slides down a rather slippery slope of mediocrity largely due to the performance of Hunt. I have seen Cast Away a few times, and I am so exhilarated by the second act and so let down by the third. See it for yourself and you can judge.
Still, the Cast Away's middle act occupies the lion's share of the film and makes the entire experience more than worthwhile. *** out of ****.