Too manipulative for it's own good.

Rating: Null/10 (15 March 2003)

`Cast Away' is a less than average film overall and it certainly is nowhere near as good as it set out to be. There are only two stars in the film that are noticed, Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt.
Tom Hanks does fairly well and you can see that he has prepared for the role, but you can also see that he's not very happy with the material he's been given. Helen Hunt doesn't get enough screen-time, given the plot of the film. She is convincing as usual as a loving housewife but only has one scene in the movie in which she `jumps off' the screen.

`Cast Away' blatantly shouts out `Give me an Oscar'. The material sets out to be gripping and humane but I found it to be hollow on the inside and some of the scenes were unintentionally hilarious. Come on, one man's friendship with his football?????? At 145 minutes `Castaway' is overlong and surprisingly little is covered in that space of time.
The film ends on a question mark and suddenly stops without any satisfying conclusion. Most people, including myself would probably feel cheated out of our money instead of engaged and satisfied. Only the most sentimentally minded audiences wouldn't fall for such blatant manipulation.