one man show that delivers

Rating: 8/10 (25 December 2000)

Cast Away is a movie that captures the spirit of one character facing the challenges of nature better than any Jack London story. The enormous risk in making this movie was that it relies, more than any other film I have ever seen, completely on the talent of its star, and realistically I don't see how anyone other than Tom Hanks could have made this work. And work it does; Hanks did a lot more than lose 50 pounds to make this a convincing performance - he reached the very core of the transformation from a human surviving in the information age to one that must survive on primal, animal instinct. He is so convincing that when he loses a completely inanimate object (a volleyball - his only companion throughout the mid-section of the movie), he moves the audience almost to tears. There are a few other characters in the movie, and the supporting performances are well done for what they are worth, but this is Hanks's show from start to finish. 8 out of 10 stars.