excellent issue driven comedy drama

Rating: 9/10 (8 May 2008)

Tom Hanks (Saving Private Ryan) stars as Forrest Gump, a man who sits on a bench and recalls his life story, growing up with many difficulties and challenges.
Hanks gives possibly the best performance of his career as the troubled man with many issues in his life. Definitely an Oscar winning performance with brilliant timing, execution, humour and seriousness all brilliantly established by the cast away star.
The plot is brilliantly character driven with a strong focus upon serious issues and how Gump deals with them such as his intelligence, his independence and relationship with other people. The issues are beautifully dealt with and shown with such a strong emotion, especially towards the end which is a very dramatic moment in the film and one of the saddest moments in film history I believe.
A film is always strong if it gives width and depth to other characters as well and the emotion behind Lt Dan's (Gary Sinise) story is remarkable and a powerful signifier of realism and honour in army life. Gump's best friend in the army Bubba (Mykelti Williamson) also has a story to tell about his upbringing and the honour and tradition of his family's shrimp business. Jenny (Robin Wright Penn) also has a dramatic and emotional life and has many issues to contend with and her story is one of the most intriguing for me.
The plot is consistent with strong realism and a powerful meaning behind each issue.
The film is well recognized as a comedy drama and through the issues covers drama and with the memorable quotes comes a great combination of the two genres. From "Life is like a box of chocolates" to "stupid is as stupid does" Zemeckis' film proves successful on all levels.
The direction and settings are brilliant, especially during the running scenes. The whole ideology of ping pong was brilliant as was the film in general and one of the best comedy dramas of the 90's if not of all time.