Vastly Overrated

Rating: 1/10 (5 January 2001)

What is so good about this film that critics and moviegoers alike insist that is deserves not only the praise it's getting, but Oscar nominations? I can only conclude that, sadly, it was such a poor overall year for quality films that we're all so desperate as to rate a below average movie much higher than it deserves.
Aside from the fact that the story was nothing more than a dull, overlong, contrived piece that was supposed to be something about 'time', it was just bad filmmaking. Frankly I think the little P.O.V. shot of the package near the beginning of the movie was one of the most annoying shots that I've seen in a long time. Just what did that accomplish that a simple closeup of the package wouldn't have. Follow the package in extreme CU if you must, but please, a package, nor the hand of the delivery man, has eyes for us to see through! Unless for some reason there was supposed to be a camera strapped to the package.
Granted, there is some nice cinematography in the film as well, but it is overshadowed by the sheer lack of any real coherent storyline. Someone else said it best - Tom Hanks gets stranded and suddenly he's a man without a brain. FOUR YEARS??? It didn't cross his mind to build a boat before then? I hope I don't get stuck on an island with Chuck Noland, thank you. Why all the silly gaps in time? The film would have been much more interesting had we actually seen what he went through in order to survive for that long. (hmmm, think the screenwriter couldn't come up with much for him to do over the course of four years, and if he built a raft right away then the movie would be cut in half... so hey, just put in a long passage of time with a title card and everything is solved?)
It pains me to see a film like this getting so much praise. Yes, it has been a bad year for movies, but there were some good ones too. High Fidelity, Gladiator... heck, even Mission Impossible II was a better made film than Cast Away. Here's hoping 2001 is better, so maybe audiences will start expecting a little more from their movies.