A bright, shiny package with nothing inside.

Rating: Null/10 (1 February 2001)

There is nothing below the shiny surface of this movie -- what did Hanks' character really "cast away?" He finds no perspective on his life or situation other than a similarity to tidal vicissitudes. He discovers no spirituality of any kind - not even when he buries the man who saved his life. He relates to a ball better than he ever did to his girlfriend or to her memory... & what does that teach him? Nothing that we can see. The strengths he is forced to find in his solitude are a mystery to us (besides making fire) & it's therefore a mystery as to how well or how badly these all-important, basic strengths translate to his "real" life, or to his "new" self. So again I ask what was "cast away" - & what was found? His bland relationship with Hunt's character? That's it? Seems he should've discovered, & cast away, a lot more on that island - & therefore returned home a richer man. Are we ever asked what is really hidden in every man's heart, underlying "civilization?" Or what use or meaning there is in a single solitary life? Oddly, no. I found the film sadly, strangely void. A deserted island is so fertile as a dramatic device, & yet it simply framed a film that itself felt deserted.