Review 198: Cast Away

Cast Away is a beautifuly made, masterfully crafted survival, disaster film, anchored by absolutely superb direction from Robert Zemekis as well as a brilliant performance from Tom Hanks.

Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a time-obsessed systems engineer who works at FedEx who travels worldwide solving productivity problems. During a flight from Memphis to Malaysia, Chuck's plane is caught in a storm and crash-lands in the South Pacific and he ends up stranded on an uninhabited island. Chuck then attempts to survive on the island using remnets of his planes cargo and possibly make it safely back home.

The plot is a beautiful work of genius, not only is it a gripping disaster movie, it's also a tale of survival and loneliness. It's also a film that shows us how important it is to enjoy life and live it to the fullest.
When we first meet Chuck, he's a time obsessed man who is embroiled in his work and never gives himself enough time to stop and smell the roses, although he has a long term relationship with fience Kelly (Helen Hunt), his busy schedule puts a strain on that relationship.
But when during one unfortunate flight his plane is bought down in a storm, he gets stranded on an island and during his time on the island, he learns to enjoy life and just go with the flow.
Because the film is essentially a one man show, Robert Zemekis & screenwriter William Broyles Jr. have to tell the majority of this story through silence and it is spectacular as we see all of Chuck's actions in what he does to survive on the island and get to experience them with him as though we are actually there with him.

Robert Zemeckis' direction is unobtrusive, crafting this film on a single location, with just one star (and a brilliant one at that) and minimal musical score is just astonishing. The island setting is just gorgeous, the scenery is breathtaking, the cinematography is beautiful and captures the exoticness and the lonely atmosphere of the island, the use of sound in this film is incredible, due to a lack of supporting characters, dialogue sound and musical score, it helps reinforce  the films strong sense of isolation. When there is music, composed by Alan Silvestri, it's beautifully sorrowful and moving, the production design is superb, the costumes are splendid.

As for the acting department, Tom Hanks delivers yet another exceptional performance as Chuck Nolan. Beautifully and heartbreakingly conveying Chuck's journey from the time obsessed FeEx guy who takes any time to stop and smell the roses we meet at the beginning, to the stranded plane crash survivor who has to improvise and use his wits and ingenuity to survive to a man who has gone through a profound spiritual and physical change.

Cats Away is one astonishing film, 5/5.

The Anonymous Critic