A Breath of Fresh Air

Rating: 8/10 (28 October 2005)

Chuck Noland (plump Tom Hanks), inextricably married to his time-sensitive, nerve-fraying job as FedEx consultant, instead of to quietly-suffering fiancé Kelly (Helen Hunt), finds himself suddenly and unceremoniously negated from Civilization's jetstream when a plane crash leaves him Stranded On A Desert Island.
A "Crusoe 2000" tale, by way of Thoreau's *Walden*, director Zemeckis audaciously grants his audience their intelligence, in making Chuck's island interlude all the more powerful and poignant by what he leaves *out*. There is minimal dialogue and no soundtrack, no undercurrent of computers and electrical paraphernalia pulsating subliminally - the bedrock of ambient sound upon which our society runs; no lawnmower growling on faraway lawn, no cell phones, iPods, piped jazz, TV commercials bombarding lies of "whitening whites"  in essence, a slice of Heaven! Nonetheless, for thematic closure, Chuck must necessarily escape back to First World indolence, where he finds he cannot reconcile his new Life-awareness with that of society's stultifying rigors, nor can he rekindle the "love" which kept hope alive whilst marooned, enabling him to then embrace a free-wheeling optimism, only evidenced in the film's final shot.
For those who value their quietude and the welcome respite from rat-racing it brings.
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