Flawed, but Good

Rating: 7/10 (14 October 2001)

Cast Away is a very good film; I've put off watching it for a while because many people have told me it's boring, well it's not. True, if I had to see just ONE actor on an island for about two hours then Tom Hanks would not be my first choice, but to his credit, he is very good. The film starts by showing us the day-to-day triviality of the FedEx department and their task master boss Chuck (Hanks). After bidding goodbye to the love of his life Kelly (Helen Hunt) he boards a plane. Of course the plane crashes on a desert island leaving Chuck the soul survivor.
The Island scenes are the best of the movie, Hank's everyman personality helps us identify with the character greatly, he isn't skilled in action hero, jungle tactics, so the smallest things can create a problem (making a fire for example). The photography by Don Burgess is also spectacular, the use of deep focus lenses letting us take in the full beauty and at times terror of the island, making Chuck seem small and insignificant in the middle of this huge unknown territory.
Four years pass and Chuck has now become skilled in hunting for fish, and now with his only companion's Wilson the Volleyball, and the picture of Kelly he must make the decision to stay on the island, or take the step to get home.
SPOILERS
The problems with the film however is that Zemeckis doesn't know what to focus on, sometimes he shows us Chuck experiencing things, but the "four years later" tag that fades up on screen means we miss a great deal of interesting discoveries, Chuck's suicide attempt, how he's managed to figure out the months and days. The tag seems lazy, as though Zemeckis just couldn't be bothered to take the extra time, instead rushing towards the sentimental ending.
This is another problem; the ending just isn't handled correctly. Four years has passed but Kelly just excepts Chuck like he's been gone for a couple of weeks, never mind the fact that she's now married with a daughter. It's up to Chuck to tell her it's over, which I just didn't buy. Personally I don't rate Hunt as much of an actress, I think she gives the same performance in every film and this is no exception. We never get a real feel for her character or their relationship prior to Chuck's crash so it's hard to feel any real pain for them. I was more upset by the loss of Wilson at sea.
SPOILERS END
It's such a pity that the ending of the film couldn't have been more satisfying, because for the most part Cast Away is a fascinating and well-acted drama, a film not afraid to take risks. Just a shame about that ending.
7/10