fascinating tale of survival(spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (9 August 2001)

From such established literary classics as `Robinson Crusoe' and `Lord of the Flies' to such products of pop culture idiocy as `Gilligan's Island' and the original `Survivor,' the human imagination has been fired up by tales of ordinary folk being suddenly stranded on a deserted island and forced to survive by sheer wit, ingenuity and the unquenchable human instinct for self-preservation. Perhaps, those of us who have been softened by all the amenities we have come to rely on to get us through our daily lives wonder if we, ourselves, could rise to such a challenge. Whatever the underlying motivation, the lure of the theme is primal and seemingly universal, as evidenced by the recent popular successes of both TV's `Survivor' and the latest movie opus from Robert Zemeckis, `Cast Away.'
`Cast Away' is a film that works on several different levels at once  but surely the most impressive is the sheer physicality of the undertaking. This extends not only to its setting but the fact that Tom Hanks, during the course of the filming, underwent a change in physique matched only by Robert De Niro in `Raging Bull.' Even more impressive is that Hanks delivers a tour de force performance, portraying a character who, for vast stretches of the film's running time, speaks nary a word and, hence, must convey his thoughts and feelings almost entirely through facial expressions and bodily gestures.
The story is a simple one: Chuck Noland is a classic type-A FedEx exec (one wonders what tidy sum the company forked over for the benefit of this product tie-in to end all product tie-ins) who is clearly too focused on the split-second requirements of his hectic job to stop and smell the roses  or to formally propose marriage to his girlfriend, Kelly (Helen Hunt). When his company plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean, Chuck, as the sole survivor, manages to wash up on a deserted island and is forced to make it on his own in this strange, forbidding world. Zemeckis and Hanks do a remarkable job making Chuck's predicament and his reaction to it believable and fascinating. We watch the step-by-step process by which Chuck attempts to bring order to his strange new existence  and the equally intriguing ways in which he attempts to cope with the mounting loneliness and solitude that will face him in the coming years if he is not rescued.
`Cast Away' is filled with moments of surprising warmth and emotionality. The personal relationship Chuck establishes with a volleyball he names Wilson achieves a strange meaning and depth since it speaks to the great need we all have for companionship and love  even if we have to invest human traits into an inanimate object to get them (children, of course, do this all the time with their stuffed animals or imaginary playmates). The finale of the film rings true as well, for we know that, in our lives, fate often intervenes in ways we do not expect and that time truly does not stand still for any of us. The world marches on and, if, for any reason, we fall off temporarily, all we can do is to jump back on and try to catch up, painful as that may be at times.
One might have wished for a bit more psychological depth to be applied to Chuck's experiences AFTER the rescue  an exploration of the stages a man caught in such a situation would go through in his re-assimilation into civilization. But that would probably require a whole other film or at least another hour's worth of running time.
As it is, `Cast Away' is gripping, moving and fascinating to watch and it is a worthy entry in a genre that seems never to lose its hold on our imaginations.