Forrest Gump

Rating: 10/10 (20 January 2014)

"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get..."
And that famous quote begins a masterful story of a man named Forrest Gump. Tom Hanks plays Forrest Gump who basically tells his life stories to people on a park bench around the bus stop. His life stories include the Vietnam war, genius Ping Pong skills, being in the All American football team, meeting President Kennedy, great running, making friends, falling in love with a childhood friend and being in a great shrimp company. We see his life story as flashbacks and we enjoy them, of course. I've never seen a movie quite like Forrest Gump. This movie made me laugh, cry and warmed my heart. Robin Wright portrays Jenny, Forrest's best friend since they were six years old and Sally Field is fantastic as Forrest's wise and caring mother. But the character that is considered to be my favorite character is Gary Sinise as Lt. Dan, who was with Forrest and the rest of the troops during the war. At first, his character's lifestyle made me feel sad, but later on Lt. Dan thanks Forrest for saving his life and enjoyed life as it is. Forrest saved his life during the war and later on, he had to be amputated. This movie is one of my personal favorites and Robert Zemeckis' best film that he directed. The ending works out perfect too. Forrest is at the park bench because he's meeting Jenny and an elderly woman tells him that the apartment she lives in, is just around the corner. Forrest hops out of his seat and manages to find Jenny and also finds out that he is the cause of Jenny's 8 year old son. Afterwards, Forrest and Jenny get married and Lt. Dan shows up at the wedding with his new fiancée. Now we see that Lt. Dan is stabled and has changed his life. Later on, Jenny tells Forrest that she has an unrecognizable virus. At first I thought that it was because of Jenny's bad decisions in the past. And then Jenny passed away of sexually transmitted diseases. We later see Forrest talking to Jenny's grave and promising her that he will take care of their son... And he does. I have to be honest with you, when I first saw Forrest Gump, I was disappointed because of Jenny's death, but then I saw it again and I love it. I now realize that it was meant to be. She can't just live, knowing that she made risky and bad decisions. But the movie still had a heartwarming and sweet ending, involving Forrest saying goodbye to his son, who is going to school. This beautiful scene reminds me of Forrest's first day at school.
And as Forrest says goodbye, the feather that he collected at the start of the film, flew out of the Curious George book and it took us away from a film that is built to perfection. Definitely one of my classic favorites.