Superbly Made (SPOILERS!!!)

Rating: 10/10 (27 December 2000)

Ordinarily I don't post comment on widely seen films (not that anyone's been holding their breath) because the many reviews that do get posted for the most part accurately and astutely convey the film's quality (or lack thereof). There's really nothing to add that hasn't been said. But scanning over the early comments on "Cast Away", I'm amazed at the number of critics that are misinterpreting and overanalyzing this straightforward and excellent film. I'm sure that many of these folks are far more intelligent and perceptive than I am, but I do feel compelled to contribute an alternative point of view.
"Cast away" is a consistently gripping, tremendously satisfying, old-fashioned tribute to the resiliency of the human spirit, performed and directed with great skill and commitment by three of the brightest talents Hollywood has to offer: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt and Robert Zemeckis. Reading the criticisms I'm reminded of the man who complains that the square isn't enough like a circle, and that the circle should be more triangle-like. This is a quietly powerful story about love, loss and hope - timeless themes that will always resonate. Don't over-think it, don't read more into it than is there. Don't be like the researcher last week who ludicrously attacked the prevalence of snowmen (as opposed to snow-women) on holiday greeting cards.
Some of the criticisms assert that nothing interesting happens in the middle section of the film. Oh yeah, nothing happens all right. Tom Hanks' workaholic every-man only gets stranded on a deserted island after a harrowing plane wreck, and has to figure out a way to keep himself fed, clothed, sheltered and sane. Not much at all. For the uninitiated, this is what is known as compelling subject matter. No tricks or gimmicks are necessary; just a great actor and director going to work. The audience is right there with Hanks as he experiences each thrilling victory (breaking coconuts open without spilling the precious liquid inside, starting a fire, extracting a rotting tooth) and agonizing setback, realizing of course that the man's very survival hinges on these heretofore mundane tasks. This is man vs. nature and man vs. himself, not man vs. "routine adversary borrowed from a thousand other films". Those hoping for Hanks to stumble upon thieving pirates, bloodthirsty natives or a top secret military base will no doubt be disappointed. Might I advise renting that classic "Six Days, Seven Nights" instead.
I've read that there is too little sense of Hanks being transformed by the experience, that one doesn't see him fully exploring and exploiting the benefits of isolation as well as the rest of the island. Please. We see a man who, in his job as a Federal Express courier (and spare me the product placement complaints - this is a movie set in the real world, he works for just such a company - it's unavoidable, get over it) is a slave to time and deadlines. As the overnight packages from the plane wreck silently wash ashore, he quickly recognizes the cruel irony and humor in his predicament. This is not someone with an artistic temperament who is going to stare at the stars, scrawl bad poetry in the sand with a broken stick and befriend a bunch of animals.
Here is a guy who we've seen as a decidedly social creature abruptly deprived of the companionship of friends, family, co-workers, customers, clients, competitors and especially the girlfriend he deeply loves. The only thing that keeps him going is the slender hope that some day he will get off the island and see those people again. So while of course the harshness of his new environment dramatically changes external characteristics, internal, non-visible ones for the most part stay the same. Significantly, however, he does adapt and then apply the survival skills he's developed over the years to achieve his goal of getting off the island. That dream never dies. No amount of months or years stranded there is going to snuff out that desire. If anything it would logically sharpen and hone it until it becomes an instrument for its realization.
***SPOILERS AHEAD!!!***
For those who contend that there's too little impact when he does finally make it off the island, I point to the beautifully understated shots of Hanks (and this is after an exhilarating sequence where he braves the giant tides on his makeshift raft) simply looking back at the massive formation in all its stubborn splendor. The shot says it all: for better or worse this was his home for four years (chosen because it's the same length of time that it takes to get a college degree?). It won't be forgotten.
Zemeckis has been criticized for choosing not to focus on Hanks' readjustment to civilization, that it all seems too cut and dried and that again, he seems barely changed. But this is where an appreciation for the art of subtlety comes in right handy. Hanks is changed. He moves slower, talks slower, thinks before he speaks, considers his words. He's taking things in, reabsorbing the world from a whole new perspective. There is no need, especially so late in the story, to show him shaving his scraggly beard, re-learning how to eat with utensils, wearing real clothes and so on. That's been done. The focus is where it should be (and it's always been sort of a parallel, unspoken narrative throughout): on his now deeply problematic reunion with Helen Hunt, the woman he loves who, thinking he had died, has married and become a mother.
And this is where I must really take issue with the many complaints of those who say the resolution of this affair is an indecisive letdown. In fact, Zemeckis has supplied the kind of scene actors dream about and Hanks and Hunt, who have a rare and believable chemistry, nail it. The director stands back and lets the couple feel their way through the minefield of emotions they're experiencing in what is a psychologically and emotionally convincing encounter that is as moving as anything Hollywood has produced in years. Is it sentimental? Sure, but there is a place for sentimentality in movies, as long as it's earned. What makes it work here is the way both Hanks' and Hunt's characters fight it and struggle against it, but ultimately it's no use. Newsflash: Human Beings Are Often Sentimental. In a movie like this, the audience, as well as the characters, deserve that moment where the music swells and the tears flow. It's the only appropriate payoff for what's transpired and it's all beautifully filmed.
The closing scene has also been misunderstood. The pretty woman in the truck is not the equivalent of Helen Hunt or some tidy replacement. The film's major theme is that just as fate dealt Hanks a major blow by stranding him on the island, and he survived, he is also capable of surviving the even crueler blow of losing the love of his life due to circumstances beyond anyone's control. The girl in the truck represents a possibility among many, visually conveyed in the closing shot where Hanks is standing in the middle of an intersection with all roads stretching off into the distance. As an adult, he has done the SELFLESS thing rather than the SELFISH, in letting Hunt go, as painful as it is. All he can do now is hang in there and hope the next day's tide will wash up something worthwhile.
This is a tragic love story, superbly made. All those who want their squares to be more like triangles, by all means see something else.