Heart-felt

Rating: 9/10 (11 April 2006)

The movie is beautiful and heart-felt. Some have commented on the ending, but I believe it's perfect.
Chuck Noland works for FedEx, is engaged, and generally leads a pretty normal life. This all changes, as the FedEx plane he was on crashes in the Pacific. He is the sole survivor, and has to adapt to a new life, cast away from civilization on a deserted island. The movie accentuates the physical and psychological hardship one must go thru in order to adapt to a new life, in this case in communion with nature. The FedEx executive undergoes a transformation, passing thru the suicidal, angry and finally resignation stage, and adapts in order to survive, but cannot leave his social ties fully behind, so he creates a friend out of a volley-ball, Wilson(I found this friendship to be very touching), hangs on to the picture of his fiancé, and, most important, perhaps, in order not to go insane, and have something to live for, keeps a package in order to deliver it someday. This element is very important, because at the end it becomes everything that drives him (his fiancé married another instead, as he was presumed dead), all purpose in life, if you will, and this is why the movie ends with him at a crossroad, disoriented, because he didn't dare think he would come so far, and didn't plan anything past delivering the package. He is now in the same place where he was when the plane crashed, he has to adapt...