Review of Cast Away (2000) by Jon T — 27 Jun 2015

Tom Hanks gives yet another tour-de-force performance in what could very well be Robert Zemeckis' magnum opus. For someone who really enjoys his movies, especially WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT and FORREST GUMP, both classics, that's saying a lot.

Hanks plays a time-obsessed FedEx engineer who gets stranded on a tropical island after his plane mysteriously crashes somewhere in the ocean. From then on, the film becomes something like "Robinson Crusoe.

" Hanks' acting is magnetic as usual, but what really makes this movie is the extensive sequence where Hanks is on the island. This 90-minute segment (arguably more than HALF of the film!) is sparse on dialogue and offers absolutely no music, giving the picture a slight "silent film" tilt.

Indeed, we don't even hear a single note of Alan Silvestri's beautiful score until the final forty-five minutes. By taking this approach, director Zemeckis truly conveys the feeling of being stranded in the middle of nowhere on a deserted island.

It's a heartbreaking movie, too; Hanks' predicament is intensified by two doomed relationships: one with Helen Hunt and the other with an imaginary companion called "Wilson", who is really just a volleyball with a blood-stained face.

While that may sound goofy and implausible, both Hanks and Zemeckis play the latter so straight that when the companions are eventually separated, it's just all the more devastating for it. Perhaps for its bold undertaking and convicting execution, CAST AWAY could very well be Zemeckis' finest film ever.

It not only succeeds in breathing new life to a story that many people already know, but it emerges as yet another truly great film, period. I highly recommend this one.