Excellent movie with BIG flaws

Rating: Null/10 (18 January 2001)

This is an entertaining and visually stunning movie that has something terribly wrong with it. That something is inconsistency. I think both writer and director contributed to the good and the bad. Again and again, ideas of pure genius are mixed with unlikely  even irrational  points that are impossible to accept. For starters: could a Caucasian spend 4 years in the blazing sun of a tropical island and come away with crusted lips and no trace of sunburn? Not even a tan? Tom Hanks is good and likeable, as always. But he carries the picture only in the sense that for much of it no one else is onscreen. Although his role calls for him to do lots of unusual things, they're really script stunts, not acting. He needs that talent only sporadically. For me, the film's 3 big plusses are the plane crash, the photography and the story's conclusion. The crash at sea is seen wholly from inside the craft, from the passengers' point of view. (It's reminiscent of Hitchcock's masterful clipper crash in `Foreign Correspondent' 60 years earlier.) The photography by Don Burgess keeps us in precisely the right place every second. His camera is often at water level yet  thanks to digital work, I assume  there's never a drop on the lens. The movie ends in an ideal location and on a perfect note of indecision and nearly limitless possibilities. Among the film's best bits is Wilson, Tom's volley ball companion, whose loss is heartbreaking. For a good and skillful movie, however, far too many questions remain. The island's beach is littered with FedEx packages from the plane's cargo, yet it seems days before Tom even thinks to look in them for useful items. Why? (Eventually, nearly everything proves to be valuable.) He also takes too long to secure the inflatable life raft that got him from the crash site to the island. And once that's lost in an unsuccessful attempt to get away, ages pass before he even thinks of trying to BUILD some sort of escape craft. I just don't believe it. Among the dumber script flaws is Tom's toothache. With all the genuine crises facing a castaway, this affliction seems contrived and superfluous. But despite the irritating lapses in `Cast Away,' the splendid good points outweigh the clumsy ones, and best parts are unforgettable. 8 stars out of 10.