It's c**p, and it'll be a huge Oscar contender

Rating: Null/10 (4 January 2001)

Here's a great idea gone wrong...SPOILERS AHEAD, NOT THAT TRAILER DIDN'T SPOIL EVERYTHING ANYWAY
It begins by saturating us with the fact that Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) lives his life on a strict schedule. In a future BATMAN film, they would set-up the Clock King's pre-menacing days similarly. After the first three lines of dialogue were out of Hanks' mouth, I had the entire exposition mapped out in my head. I was half-expecting that Hanks would -- after the plane crash -- return to his wife (Helen Hunt) as a snowman. I should note that as a JACK FROST reference only because I'm not confident that many of you have seen it (obviously, if you haven't, don't).
So after the crash, Hanks floats to the island where we spend a good chunk of the movie alone with him. Mostly good stuff here, especially when dealing with basic survival. I was able to completely forget that Hanks was just an actor surrounded by a film crew. The lack of music and the sustained sequences let you inside Chuck Noland's skin. It is therefore a dreadful mistake on the part of the filmmakers to pull us out of that skin when we are starting to identify with it. "Four years later," says the title card. I would have liked 15 or 20 more minutes on the island, or enough to properly transition Chuck Noland from a baffled plane crash survivor to a suicide-contemplating loon who talks to volleyballs. And if they showed that damn stopwatch with Helen Hunt's picture one more time, I'd be overcome by nausea. It was almost as sappy as the use of the compass in Zemeckis' CONTACT. Same syrupy significance.
Now, if you've been watching this guy rub sticks together for an hour, wouldn't it be interesting to see his rescue and his potentially jarring re-introduction to civilisation? Let's face it, as horrible as the entire situation would be, it'd almost be worth being stranded to be rescued. It'd be like being carried off home plate after hitting the game-winning home run in Game 7 of the World Series. What a missed opportunity to skip this emotional rollercoaster and instead plunk down another title card: "One month later." Well, I want to know what that month was like. Throw in the four years I missed and I'd be even happier.
All of the events shown after Hanks' arrival home are uninteresting. I really didn't want to know about any of it. Zemeckis once again chose sentimentality over imagination. We get a long kiss in a rainstorm and a cheesy "guardian angel/freedom" symbol that dumps more sugar on the pile that the pocket-watch started. There is no transition from rescued Hanks to recovering Hanks. If you started watching the film from the "One month later" title card, you'd barely think that this man spent over four years on a deserted island.
Some great sequences at least make this entertaining frustration. Less c**p, more good stuff, and smoother transitions; that would have resulted in a better film. As Hanks would say in the similarly-flawed FORREST GUMP, "That's all I have to say about that."
Grade: C