Great film. Pity about the ending though ...

Rating: Null/10 (23 January 2001)

... I can't help but feel impressed that a film that spends most of its time just watching a man do things on an island can be so enjoyable. Without a doubt this can be attributed to Tom Hanks himself, who has the power to draw attention to himself and appear interesting even without the aid of dialogue, and director Robert Zemeckis, who's excellent direction really pays off.
Alas this is not the perfect film. Zemeckis should have trusted Hanks' abilities and have made his time on the island the primary focus of the movie, rather than simply make it the 2nd act of a 3 act play.
*Spoilers*
The beginning is pretty much standard but I guess we have to start somewhere. The plane crash is quite a well-done piece of film making and of course the time on the island is superb. Unfortunately just as Hanks seems to be getting the grasp of surving on the island we fast-forward 4 years to see him preparing an escape. Ok, I can accept that. but then after being rescued instead of the film ending like we would all expect it to we're treated to yet another 30 mins or so of 'finishing up' stuff from the beginning.
Really what irks me the most is not really that they continued on after he was rescued, but rather that they did it in such a boring and obvious way. We hardly get a glimpse of seeing Hanks re-adapting to life in civilisation again (he was marooned for 4 years afterall) and of course the whole relationship thing with Helen Hunt is given as much time as the film makers can wring out of it.
However, even the bad bits don't come close to putting a dampener on the overall majesty of the film. I'd strongly recommend it, but if you're not to fussed about seeing a film right through then it might pay to walk out just as Hanks gets rescued.
4 out of 5 stars