Review of Six Days Seven Nights (1998) by Filipeneto — 29 Dec 2019

Beautiful to see, but with poor performances by the actors.

Romantic comedies are often the poor relative of comedy. Almost all renowned actors have participated in at least one, and almost never go well or are successful. In this case we have Harrison Ford in the lead role, but he is undoubtedly in a role that seems to make him uncomfortable.

The script is simple: a loving couple from New York decide to have a romantic vacation on a paradise island of Polynesia. But she works as a photographer for a women's magazine, and at some point is urgently required to do work on a nearby island, Tahiti. The plane crashes and she, and the pilot she doesn't get along with, end up trapped on a deserted island, leaving their respective boyfriends alone on the resort. Add some danger, some adventure, seduction and you're done. Simple and relatively effective.

Harrison Ford is not very good at the role given to him. It's never funny and it's grosser than seductive. Either way, she performed fairly well, managing to collaborate well with Anne Heche, whom the script reserves the best comedy scenes and the funniest parts of the dialogue (especially when her character drinks or gets hysterical). David Schwimmer, unfortunately, can never be good. His character is just a good-hearted idiot with more money than intelligence. Jacqueline Obradors, meanwhile, had little to do. Her character is hot, pretty and dumb, and appearing almost naked and talking in a funny way is enough. In fact, despite being a romantic comedy, the movie bets too much on infidelity and vulgarizes treason.

The best of this movie, no doubt, is the photography and the scenery, which masterfully took advantage of the light, color and magnificent landscapes of the Pacific islands. This makes the movie beautiful and pleasing to the eye. The humorous and adventurous scenes and the light tone and fast pace with which the story takes place also greatly help to make the movie enjoyable. But it's not a good movie for the family: it has seductive scenes and messages that are inappropriate for the family.