There are some movies people are generally surprised I have not seen for one reason or another. Every so often, someone will say something, I’ll respond I haven’t seen something, even if I have no real reason to have missed it beyond the simple fact I have, and things go from there. Most recently, that probably came up from the revelation that I had not for some reason seen the Tom-Hanks-talks-to-a-volleyball movie Cast Away. Why? No real reason. I just haven’t. But part of keeping this blob is to report when I fill in a blank space. So, seeing as how the movie was leaving HBO Max at the end of April, now was as good a time as any.
By the by, I haven’t seen Titanic either, but I have no intentions of filling that gap nay time soon.
Fed Ex productivity executive Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is flying with a plane full of packages over the Pacific when the a storm forces the plane down. Chuck is the only survivor of the water crash, and he manages to get to an uninhabited island. From there, he has to teach himself how to survive on his own with only the things he can find, most notably a handful of FedEx packages. Among them is a Wilson brand volleyball that becomes Chuck’s only companion when he gets a bloody handprint on the thing and then draws a face on it. Chuck’s efforts are often clever and creative. Eventually, he finds some wreckage that allows him to build a raft that can get past the breakers and out to open water, looking for a rescue.
All things being equal, this is the sort of movie where if you want to just watch Tom Hanks, often silently, figure out how to survive in a hostile environment with very little skills in that area. Seeing Chuck finally get a fire going, or his freak out the first time he thinks he’s lost Wilson, are noteworthy moments, but all things being equal, not the sort of thing that makes me really sit up and take notice. There’s nothing wrong with these scenes. Hanks is a charming performer in just about everything he’s ever done, and he’s working with his Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis again, so the two do have a track record. Sure, it is odd that Zemeckis isn’t making a movie with a lot of special effects, something he has somewhat specialized in over the years, but that doesn’t make this is a solid piece of filmmaking. The shot of Chuck on his raft, reaching weakly for a passing cargo ship, was a thing of beauty.
However, the movie doesn’t end there and goes on for another 45 minutes or so, and this was the portion of the movie I ended up liking best. The opening scenes showed Chuck at work and almost played like a Fed Ex commercial…and has someone who has had some issues with Fed Ex deliveries of late, that didn’t exactly endear Chuck to me. But the last portion of the movie, showing Chuck’s return to the world he knew and the changes that had occurred while he was gone–most notably how his long term girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt) has married another man. The scenes between the two as they try to navigate the incredibly complex emotional minefield that is his return was easily the best part of the movie, where as much as they still love each other, both know that Kelly, now a married woman with a baby of her own, can’t exactly run off with Chuck and the quiet acceptance that Chuck signals easily made the movie for me.
In the end, it does seem as if Chuck, though somewhat directionless, is at some form of peace for himself…even if he finds it by delivering the last of the packages he had with him on that island. Man, some people are really dedicated to their jobs.
Grade: A-
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