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Review by Susan Granger
4 stars out of 4
Along with a sure-fire Oscar nomination, Tom Hanks gets my
vote for this year's REAL "Survivor." In this contemporary Robinson
Crusoe tale, Hanks plays a busy FedEx executive who waves good-bye to
his girl-friend , Helen Hunt, saying "I'll be right back." They've
just exchanged Christmas gifts. She gave him her grandfather's pocket
watch with her photo inside and he gave her a little, square jeweler's
box, presumably an engagement ring. Then there's the harrowing agony
of a terrifying plane crash, and Hanks washes ashore on a tiny,
deserted speck of an island in the Pacific Ocean. How will he find
water, food and shelter with nothing but the clothes he's wearing, a
scavenged flashlight and the contents of FedEx boxes strewn on the
beach? Using ingenuity, he turns ice-skate blades into knives,
videotape into rope, dress material into a fishing net and
triumphantly builds a fire. With his own blood, he paints a face on a
volleyball and it becomes his companion named Wilson. But even more
important than his grueling physical and mental endurance is his
metaphysical meditation in the solitary silence and his eventual
transformation from a selfish, time-obsessed workaholic into a
thoughtful, mature man, fully capable, four years later, of coping
with a challenging crossroad of choices. Actor/producer Tom Hanks and
director Robert Zemeckis, who collaborated on another Everyman journey
called "Forrest Gump," superbly craft this risky, often humorous film
and, along with writer William Broyles Jr., they are as distinguished
for the paths not chosen, the pitfalls avoided. On the Granger Movie
Gauge of 1 to 10, "Cast Away" is an intense, ironic, insightful 10 -
one of the 10 Best Pictures of the Year. It's not just a movie - it's
an experience.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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out of 4
