Review of Cast Away (2000) by Dawdlingpoet — 21 Nov 2021

It was kind of interesting to see the ways that Chuck adapted to his new environment.

For instance, learning the best way to open fallen coconuts so that he gets all the moisture and liquid available from them.

It is quite clever, how he manages to make the most of the little he has, like some Fed Ex packages that drift onto shore, he finds a use for most of the items they hold. The sheer frustration he has is clear, as is understandable, I mean just imagine the thoughts he must have, not knowing if he'd ever be found. Can you imagine what you'd do, if you were in that situation?

Its hard not to wince at times too, he gets his share of pain through certain situations, which of course adds to his frustration.

As the movie goes on and of course time passes by, he becomes more vocal and makes a face out of one of the items he found in one of the Fed Ex packages - a volleyball, which he names Wilson and starts talking to more and more, as if it were human. The lack of human contact clearly affects him, as it would affect anyone, I imagine.

Alot of the emotions are only evident from his facial expressions and later on from his frustrated and sometimes hopeful outcries and dialogue/banter with Wilson (the volleyball).

Its not hard to feel sorry for the guy in this situation (although at the start of the movie, he is portrayed more as a bit of a jerk, bossing people about and complaining when he doesn't get to where he's supposed to be quite in time) and it is intriguing, like I say, to see how he copes and adapts to whats available to him.

Seeing how he changes as time passes by is also quite sad or depressing in one sense but in another it indicates some real strength and will I guess. I wonder how long it would be possible to last in such a situation? he clearly misses his wife, having a framed photo of her that takes pride of place among his belongings. As time passes by, he realises what a large area there is for any search party to cover and his hope of being found diminishes but of course, you have to see the movie to find out if he is rescued eventually or not.

The sort of friendship that evolves between Chuck and Wilson is kind of intriguing. I guess some would say that it marks the start of his mental well being deteriorating, he certainly converses with 'Wilson' as if it were a fellow human, initially painting a face on it as I mentioned previously, to even more humanise it. Tom Hanks does pretty well in portraying the character of Chuck, certainly, as I say, you can see the emotions, the frustation and fear, on his face.

I guess the message behind it is to do with taking a step back from our busy workload and lifestyle and to think about the basics, hey at least we have food, drink, shelter and human company, well, most of us do anyway, right?

While this might sound like a fairly boring movie, there is the ocassional dramatic scene, not including the plane crash, though its also fair to say that they are a bit few and far between.

There is the odd squeamish moment, I would warn, if you don't like blood, just be aware, its only the occasional but it made me look away, I'm not good with that sort of thing I'll admit!

The way the story plays out and the character of Chuck is shown, I felt it intrigued, certainly me anyway, to watch on and find out what became of him.

The film does a good job of making you see quite how isolated he is too, with the vastness of the ocean surrounding him.

I thought, given the ending as well, that this is a movie that feels like it is trying to give a message to its viewers, about making us think about our hectic lifes and whats really important. This may put some off I suppose, I wouldn't say thats overly preachy really, its more at the very end that this is really brought home, you could say.

I thought that this was a good movie worth watching.