Fantastic film about loss and survival

Rating: 9/10 (21 October 2015)

Director Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks reunite after working together in the 1994 Oscar-winning film Forrest Gump. Setting the two-time Oscar winning actor in a powerful story of survival and hope, this adventure delivers a story that embraces an intense and emotional character study of a stripped away from his comfortable life on civilization and casted out in a lonely world where only the strong-willed survive. The film stars Tom Hanks as Chuck Noland, a FedEX executive who goes on a business trip overseas. However, when his plane caught into a nasty storm and crashes, killing everyone on board except him, he finds himself stranded on a deserted island thousands of miles away from home and his girlfriend Kelly (played by Helen Hunt). With no one to contact for help, Chuck must test his physical, emotional, and mental skills to survive on a deserted island until someone comes and finds him. In the process, he finds a volleyball in an undelivered FedEX package. After cutting his hand, he gives the ball a face using his bloody hand print and befriends the ball as a companion, and names it 'Wilson'.
Robert Zemeckis blesses this film with an ingenious script and story telling, and Tom Hanks delivers an endearing performance as the main character. This film deals with a man with finds himself loss on a deserted island with absolutely no contact with any individuals, and must transform himself to a new person to survive a place where there is no "real" food, technology, or communication. How Tom Hanks' character develops is quite amazing and really moves the story along at a fairly effective pace. As the story progresses, his body becomes thin, his grows an excessive amount of facial hair to where he resembles a cave man, and his meals are reduced to crabs and fish he catches in the sea. He also begins having verbal conversations with a volleyball as a way coping with his loneliness. While there is little excitement to experience, the film always managing to keep the story alive and moving, and all this thanks to its captivating screenplay by William Broyles Jr. There are some emotional points towards the second half that have the potential of making sensitive viewers shed a few tears. Luckily these scenes are done in a manner that allow viewers to express emotions rather than manipulate them into sadness.
Cast Away is Robert Zemeckis's best film behind Forrest Gump and Back To The Future. It is a film that tells a brilliant story of survival, courage, and loss. How this film didn't receive any Oscar nominations other than Best Actor and Best Sound surprise a bit. Overall, this movie is nonetheless satisfying.