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CAST AWAY Send This Review to a Friend
Tom Hanks probably should share equal billing with Federal Express in "Cast Away," which apart from being an award-worthy vehicle for Hanks, is a shameless plug for FedEx that goes way beyond the normal product tie-ins. Not only is Hanks marooned on a Pacific island, but there are assorted FedEx packages as well to keep him company, including one with a volleyball on which he draws a face that becomes the only companion he has. Hanks, playing Chuck Noland, a trouble-shooting employee of the company, survives and manages to get to shore after a FedEx plane (see--I've had to mention the company four times already) crashes.
The emergency and the crash itself are chillingly detailed to show the horror that can be experienced in such a catastrophe, including being trapped under water and trying desperately to escape. Once miraculously alive on the desolate island, Noland has only thoughts of his loving girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt) to anchor and keep up his spirits. There isn't another human to be found, and like a primitive man, he must use all of his instincts, intelligence and stamina to survive, including making fire without matches. Back home, he is presumed dead.
Screenwriter William Broyles, Jr. has worked in a good idea to enable Noland to converse so we are not subjected to only voice-over thoughts. By using his blood to draw a face on the volleyball, Noland creates a "person" whom he names aptly names Wilson. This new-found companion represents everything about clinging to life. As Noland's mind gets crazier, keeping "Wilson" alive becomes synonymous with keeping himself alive. Somehow Noland must escape the island to hope for rescue, and he uses his ingenuity and daring to discover a way. But he has been lost for four years.
Hanks's resourcefulness as an actor almost equals the resourcefulness that the character must display. This is an unusually meaty role emotionally and physically, and Hanks, fine performer that he is, makes the most of it. He also has his likeable qualities going for him with an audience, and the saga is certainly gripping.
What occurs when he is finally discovered is much less so. For one thing, the Noland we have seen before his rescue is surely bonkers. It would probably take years of professional help to just get him to a half-way normal state. But suddenly there he is, changed and not his former self to be sure, but looking and acting as if he'd been away on a trying Boy Scout survival trip for a few weeks. All of the ensuing business with his former girlfriend gets terribly sentimental, and one would almost like to roll the film back to the island days because that's the interesting part.
Still, director Robert Zemeckis has made a compelling, absorbing film overall, and Hanks turns in a stalwart, creative performance. A 20th Century-Fox and DreamWorks Pictures release.
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