Overrated melodrama

Rating: 4/10 (28 June 2007)

Most opinions have already seen the light of day here, so I'll be brief.
As a middle-aged Brit who has had a relatively positive life, I positively loathed the premise on which this film was based - if you are good-hearted then you will triumph against adversity no matter what obstacles life throws into your path (with the subtext "In America"). Sorry, it just ain't true, even in America. I'm afraid to say that I loathed the way that America took this message to its heart even more than I loathed the message.
And I have always disliked the way the Academy often favours "disease of the week" performances (I always rated Ernie Hudson's performance as a similarly afflicted character in "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" - why did that get overlooked?).
But let me be fair. There is a short sequence where Gump tries to ask Jenny if his son is normal - maybe 20 seconds in total. Hanks' performance in this sequence is nothing short of phenomenal and, on its own, justifies his Oscar in this film, even if the rest of it is nothing special.