Sunday 24 July 2011

Film Review - Cast Away


Release: 2000
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Tom Hanks

Another film I took little notice of when it came out, but actually thought it was brilliant when I eventually got around to it. This certainly shows why Tom Hanks was Mr Oscars in the 90s. It's a touching tale of love and survival.

Hanks works for FedEx, and is on a plane from Russia to the America ready to get home for Christmas. The plane goes down during a horrendous storm, and Hanks is the sole survivor washed up on an island with a load of parcels as his only equipment.

The desire not only just to live, but to return home to his wife is what keeps him going. To avoid going crazy, he turns a football into his only friend. Eventually he uses the contents of the parcels washed up as a means of escape.

He returns home to find years have gone by, and declared legally dead his wife eventually moved on and remarried. It's a heartbreaking epilogue, but it's beautiful to see how he decides to make it up to those people who never received their parcels.

Films dealing with loss, such as loss of memory, or loss of time, really resonate with me. I was touched to see him crushed by waiting so long to be reunited with his wife only to lose her, and then he survives that too and moves on.

A beautiful film. Well worth it's hype.

8/10

No comments:

Post a Comment