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No man is an island
by CarlosC (movies profile)
Mar 20, 2008
17
of
23 people found this review helpful
Act One. Tom Hanks is a Federal Express executive named Chuck Noland who ends up stranded on a deserted Pacific island for five years in Robert Zemeckis' CASTAWAY. Okay, lemme slow down: Tom Hanks is a Federal Express executive named Chuck NO-LAND. There is NO LAND associated with his name, okay? Sometimes, the movie hits you over the head with details like that. His profession (a Federal Express executive) assures that he never has time to stop and smell the roses. Then, he gets on a plane to answer an urgent call from FedEx and he tells his fiancée (Helen Hunt), "I'll be right back." Right, being the operative word.
Act Two. The next day, he is harshly awakened by the merciless, pounding surf on a tiny, uncharted, uninhabited island (Monu-riki in the Mamanuca-I-Ra group of the northwest section of the Fiji islands was the filming location), where he has drifted ashore. The night before seems like a surreal nightmare (his plane crashed into the sea) because it is shot using techniques reminiscent of another Hanks movie, 1998's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.
The island scenes of CASTAWAY constitute its critical mainland. On that lonely rock, the movie is grounded. One suspects that this was the focal point of the story around which everything else was erected, and that the further we get from that touchstone, the weaker the movie grows. On the island, Hanks nourishes his spirit lionizing the memory of his fiancée (Hunt) while struggling to nourish also his body. Frustrated comedy results when Hanks tries to make fire (he could have borrowed a page from "The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook" by Piven & Borgenicht...page 150, to be exact).
Knowing that the CASTAWAY would pine for companionship -- and that audiences would pine for dialogue -- the writers gave Hanks a make-believe buddy, named Wilson (a volleyball of that make that washes ashore). Hanks' companion becomes a part of him, with heart-rending results. Hanks gets other writer assists: video tapes, ice skates, a corpse, and other flotsam and jetsam from the plane wreck (a FedEx jet). Part of the fun might be guessing what he'll do with each item. A more advanced version of the game might contemplate what he could have done with these objects. Part ROBINSON CRUSOE, part LORD OF THE FLIES, part 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, this portion of the movie really works.
Act Three. Part CASABLANCA? The movie "bookends" the desert island saga with attempts to dramatize to us what being shipwrecked meant to Hanks by showing us the life he left behind, and returned to. There are inherent problems with this tack. It relies on the strength characters who have been back-story extras, at best, and achieves modest success. If this wasn't big name Hunt in the Ingrid Bergman role (torn between two loves), the point would be even more obvious. It is hard to say what else the filmmakers could have done on the island to fill up the remaining time. Much of it has been done in some of the aforementioned films. Perhaps, a good thing would have been to roll credits and quit while one's ahead. Nevertheless, the island action will always buoy this movie to the classic leagues.
(Carlos Colorado) |
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