Could have been so much more

Rating: Null/10 (2 January 2001)

The choices made by the director of this film baffled me. There were so many powerful scenes that were just skipped over and not shown.
The whole "four years later" title card just seemed to rob the audience of a much needed part of the story. The story felt disconnected. Scenes that stunned me because they were NOT there: ----POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING ---------- Tom being rescued! They do not show his first encounter with humanity after four years! Where is the shock of his rescuers at seeing him!? Where is Tom's stunned disbelieving eyes that he has finally been saved?! You get another title card that says "four weeks later" and boom! he's on a private jet all shaved and clean and dressed. Back on the island they could have shown Tom staring at his reflection in the water and seeing how he has changed, they could have shown him going mad, they could have shown him trying to kill himself out of loneliness. Basically they just show him surviving and yelling at a volleyball. There was not enough exploration of his situation and of it's effect on his soul. Then to top it all off when he comes back to civilization he does not really seem that changed at all. He needed to have an astonishing EPIPHANY to make the island time more meaningful.