Review of Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) by Eric A — 30 Jan 2011

Joe Banks (Tom Hanks) is an Everyman with a death wish in "Joe Versus the Volcano." Diagnosed with a fatal condition called a 'brain cloud,' he strikes a bargain with an eccentric industrialist to offer himself as a sacrifice to a tribe of orange soda-loving South Seas natives and their temperamental volcano, which just happens to sit on vast reserves of mineral wealth. Make sense? It shouldn't. How Joe has chosen to die isn't the point, it's what he does what playing out the string of his mortality.

Joe apparently thinks the best use of his last carefree days is to air the grievances of complete strangers. Quitting his job at some sort of German Expressionist widget factory (where is his boss is the perfectly hectoring Dan Hedaya), Joe runs into three separate - but equally fragile - versions of Meg Ryan. The last one is the one we're supposed to accept as the One True Ryan, the strong one, the blonde one, the one with an actual job. She's the one captaining the boat that gets Joe to the volcano. It's a cutesy conceit but it doesn't allow much time for developing the chemistry between the characters. We forget that the idea of Hanks and Ryan in love is something ingrained in us by a decade of promotion and advertising; the idea of Banks and Ryan #3 in love is merely a plot contrivance.

Hanks gives an enjoyable performance. This is like saying the sun rises each morning, but it's as true here as it is in "Castaway," "Big," "You've Got Mail,"...even "The Da Vinci Code." Joe actually might be most comparable to the hero of those Dan Brown adaptations, so calm and focused despite the obvious dread mounting behind his naifish face. He finally lets it all go in the film's final act, unleashing the signature Hanks Growl ("ah, COME ON!"). Hanks is at his most sympathetic when perturbed.

"Volcano" is a featherweight commentary on the inanity of modern living, a grin-inducing Odyssey of the slightly offbeat, Albert Brooks without the caustic bent. This is the type of film they call "life-affirming," even if its most realistic aspect is just how cheap an ordinary life can be.