Cast Away ***** (2000, Tom Hanks) – Classic Movie Review 282

‘I always knew you were alive, I knew it. Everybody said that I had to let you go. I love you. You’re the love of my life.’ – Kelly Frears.

Tom Hanks is brilliant as Chuck Noland, a busy FedEx postal boss forced to fend for himself when he’s stranded on a desert island after his plane crashes into the ocean, in this terrific, modern-day Robinson Crusoe survival story.

Long (at 143 minutes), but very satisfying, Robert Zemeckis’s 2000 film is meticulously made in a clear labour of love. It runs very smoothly indeed thanks to writer William Broyles Jr’s screenplay, which is a beautifully honed, class item.

The crash is brilliantly done and the long central section on the island is bravura stuff from Hanks, with only a volleyball named Wilson for Noland to talk to as he tests himself every which way to try to survive. Only the prolonged ending strikes a wrong note.

It’s Hanks’s show all the way – a one-man tour de force. Helen Hunt has a thankless task as Noland’s girlfriend Kelly Frears, but Chris Noth has a much worse time with no role at all as her new man, Jerry, whom she takes on after giving up hope of even seeing Chuck again.

Production stopped for a whole year, while Zemeckis filmed What Lies Beneath and Hanks lost 50 pounds for the island section. He announced he had diabetes in 2013, and said a possible cause was interfering with his natural weight for this film and for Philadelphia.

Hanks won the Golden Globe as Best Actor and was Oscar nominated. Oddly, there were no Academy Awards or Baftas.

William Broyles Jr also wrote the screenplays for Apollo 13 (1995), Planet of the Apes (2001), Entrapment, Unfaithful, The Polar Express, Jarhead and Flags of Our Fathers.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Film Review 282 derekwinnert.com

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