Excellent, despite a s*it ending

Rating: Null/10 (15 February 2001)

"Cast Away" goes down as one of those films that's excellent all the way until the end. There are several films that make that cut. I can't think of any off the top of my head but you'll figure it out. Hanks is Chuck Noland, a workaholic FedEx employee who's married to his job, and about to be engaged to Kelly (Helen Hunt). His job has him travel all around the world ensuring better FedEx services by serving as a hustling efficiency expert who shapes the offices. In one ill fated night, however, after proposing to Kelly, Chuck's plane over the Pacific goes down in a fiery storm and he's washed away to a deserted island. For the next two hours, Hanks finds himself surviving off his natural instincts and his smarts as he begins to salvage what he can in his life. The story is remarkably smooth that fleshes out Hanks' character as a decent man who's good at heart. It's a chronicle of his life as he lives day by day on the island and it's actually fascinating to watch how he lives. Whether it be discovering how to start a fire to gathering food, we watch Noland do it all. However, and there won't be many people that will disagree, the ending really sucks. It's on a so/so basis where you have absolutely no idea what happens to his character. I think part of the reason why the ending isn't good is because audiences want to see Hanks' character live the rest of his life and his re-adjustment to society, something you don't get to see much of. All in all though, Cast Away is a great film to watch.