One of the best films of the year.

Rating: Null/10 (13 January 2001)

Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis take you on a journey that you'll not soon forget. When we first meet Hanks' character, he's a time obsessed FedEx employee who lives by the clock. His entire life has to be scheduled at least a week in advance. Then, one fateful evening he departs on a plane that crashes into the Pacific. After surviving the crash, Chuck is washed ashore on an island in the middle of nowhere. Now, he has nothing but time on his hands. Slowly but surely, Chuck begins to reawaken primal insticnts that have layed dormant in him, and through this, we see just how resourseful, and resiliant humans can be. To their credit, Zemeckis and Hanks never resort to anything that would be found on Gilligan's Island. No pirates, no apes, no nothing in fact. All that is on island is Hanks, and whatever has washed ashore. Since humans are a social animal, the need for communication is essential, and one of the best relationships developed in the film is between Chuck and Wilson. Through Wilson, Chuck is able to express his concerns, his fears, his hopes and this allows him a shred of sanity.
Once again, Robert Zemeckis shows hi s mastery at the art of storytelling. He makes good use of the visual effects to propel the story forward, and the effects never take center stage. Even during the very realistic plane crash. The effects are there to help the story, they are not the story. Tom Hanks shows that he's one of the best actors working today. His weight loss for the film has been duly noted in many papers and periodicals but to see him go from a thick, bear like man to a skeletal frame with a scraggly beard is quite shock. He gives his all for his performance, and there are scenes on and off the island that contain only Hanks, and these scenes are heartbreaking.
Some may complain that the running time is too long, that the film starts to slow down once Hanks is on the island. Well, that's the point. We begin to feel what he's going through. With nothing but time on your hands, and no way to measure it, time seems to stand still.

Cast Away is one of the better films this season, and one of the best films of the year. Thanks in part to the performance of Tom Hanks and the masterful direction of Robert Zemeckis.