Another Hanks masterpiece

Rating: Null/10 (29 September 2002)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** *Spoilers ahead*
Personally I don't get all the negativity surrounding this film. I think its mostly an anti-Hanks contingent. Hanks is quite simply one of the greatest actors out there. No this is not his greatest film, but I still put it in a category of being a great film.
The Fed-Ex thing is a little annoying, but its better to use a real company rather than "Ye olde delivery service" to bring some realism to the movie. I've only ever seen the movie in Japan so I've always seen it with Japanese subtitles and the fact that there are no subtitles appearing on screen for long periods of time give testimony to how powerful the movie is despite no real dialogue for about a quarter of the movie.
Chuck Noland goes through a real transformation during his time away. We see him at the beginning being a company man who can't relate to his colleague on a personal level and who brings a beeper to Christmas dinner. By the end he totally opens up to his colleague and looks willing to settle into rural life with the woman at the end. He is also willing to give up the woman he loves, the old Chuck wouldn't have done that. There is no way that this movie is about how shallow women are as one reviewer said. I admit that 4 years is a little soon to fall in love, remarry and have a child, but anyone who has lost someone they loved would probably support her for doing this. The last scene is very strong. Chuck only had one road ahead of him at the beginning, but now he has a choice. I think most of us would like to be him standing at that intersection having a choice. And to those who felt Wilson had more character than Chuck, really just don't get it so its not worth informing you of the significance of that.
Simply put, a great film that really shows us what a materialistic world we have become and shows us what can happen when we are given a choice in life. Highly recommended. For the record it is not 3 hours long as most people have stated.