Engaging and very powerful

Rating: 8/10 (5 June 2005)

Cast Away is the sort of film that filmmakers should be striving to give their audiences more often. While it's not wholly original, and influences from the classic Robinson Crusoe story especially shine through, we haven't seen all that many films of this nature in recent years and therefore this is a refreshing yarn. Tom Hanks stars as the businessman unlucky enough to find himself stranded, all alone, on an island in the middle of nowhere. Completely cut off from any kind of society, our hero must do all he can to survive the elements that he has found himself in. Unlike most films that we've seen Hanks in before, this performance is very much of a physical nature, and his lack of dialogue gives the actor a very different feel to what he usually evokes from the audience. Tom Hanks had to work hard to give this performance, as the role requires a lot of hard work; but he's risen to the challenge excellently, and this movie has given me more respect for the actor I, at one time, didn't have any respect for at all.
The way that Robert Zemeckis draws us into the protagonist's plight is really well done, and throughout the movie you almost feel like you are marooned on the island as well. I was sat transfixed with the action on screen, and my viewing of this movie marks one of the most engaging I've ever had in my film watching career. It's amazing how Hanks can be sat talking to a volleyball with grass stuck to it's head and have the audience engrossed in the action. Ironically, Hanks talking to a volleyball was much more interesting than any conversations he had with real actors in movies such as Philadelphia and Apollo 13. The film is very realistic throughout, and this helps the movie no end when it comes to drawing the audience in as this could very much be a documentary feature of a true story; such is the realism of the picture. It comes across most evidently in the scenes that see Hanks writhe in pain after gashing his leg on a stray rock in the ocean. We actually FEEL his pain, and that is testament to the power of this movie. It took me five years to finally catch this film, and even then it was only by accident. If I was you and I hadn't seen this film yet, I'd do so ASAP.