"
six days , seven nights " is a summer movie that gets the summer movie experience deliciously right , a commendable achievement considering the season thus far has been littered with some pretty uneven fare .
here 's a genuinely fun fluff piece that knows it 's fluff , recognizes it 's fluff and is admittedly proud to be fluff .
of course , the casting of harrison ford in the broadly comedic lead role plays a sizeable part in the movie 's success ; ford is such a concentrated dramatic actor that it 's easy to forget what a funny guy he can be .
as his female counterpart , anne heche also deserves a big pat on the back for her sweet , goofily charismatic performance .
the age difference ( ford 's 56 , heche 's 29 ) matters not -- these two click in a charged way that 's hard to come by .
the story is a no - brainer -- ford stars as gruff but loveable island aviator quinn harris , while heche is career - minded but loveable new york magazine editor robin monroe .
robin , on a tropical vacation with fianc ?
frank ( david schwimmer ) , gets assigned to supervise an emergency photo shoot in nearby tahiti
, so she reluctantly hires quinn to fly her there .
the plane crashes during a terrible storm , and they immediately find themselves stuck in a deserted paradise with few ideas on getting back to civilization .
a series of unpleasant , often hilarious catastrophes leaves little choice but for both members of this unlikely odd couple to fall for each other .
meanwhile , back at the resort , frank is tempted himself by quinn 's shapely female tagalong ( jacqueline obradors ) .
that subplot obviously exists to get us rooting for the quinn - robin pairing , and while it makes for a few good laughs early on , it eventually becomes a contrived distraction from the far more engrossing misadventures of quinn and robin .
and since the film spends most of its time with the castaways , this flaw is only a minor inconvenience .
director ivan reitman keeps the pace brisk . at a slim 101 minutes , " six days , seven nights "
never wears out its welcome , where a lesser film could have felt like it was as long as its title .
michael browning 's clever screenplay allows for plenty of notable one - liners
( my favorite , taken in context , is " you mean _ arrrgh _ pirates ? " ) , and though it essentially boils down to one mishap after another ,
they 're all quite engaging .
even the movie 's more " serious " moments are played with a wink .
heche has been under undeserved fire over whether or not her private life with ellen degeneres would affect the " believability " of " six days , seven nights " ' heterosexual pairing .
( so she 's a lesbian .
so what . deal with it . )
of course it does n't , and here ,
her naysayers are proved wrong in a big way .
in fact , her chemistry with ford is what really makes the film click ; these opposites attract with the utmost , endearing electricity .
at one point , when the two are discussing the likelihood of romantic interest , heche asks ford how old he is .
after several wrong guesses ( " forty - five ?
_ fifty
_ ?
" ) , he whispers his age to her .
"
you still look good , " heche stammers .
"
i still _ am _ good , " ford replies .
she 's good too , and together , they make " six days , seven nights
" one memorable ride .
Output: P