#robertzemeckis

Everyone "knows" Cast Away. The setup, the volleyball, the ending... but do you remember how it felt?

Set in 1995, Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a FedEx systems engineer marooned on a deserted island after a plane crash. We follow his desperate attempts to survive and return home.

Director Robert Zemeckis takes the time to set up everything that’s important and make this more than a survival story. Before Chuck is stranded on the uncharted, uninhabited island, we really get to know who he is. You see him as a demanding but fair employee of FedEx, a regular guy having Christmas dinner with his girlfriend (Helen Hunt as Kelly), someone who thinks he’s about to die in a plane crash, a lost soul hoping to be spotted via messages left in the sand, and as a survivor. When you follow a single character through as drastic changes as Cast Away offers, you learn to understand them more deeply than you're accustomed to. A role like this is a gift for any performer and Tom Hanks delivers a masterful performance.

Once Chuck is alone, it just keeps getting better and better. You bear witness to a full range of emotion as he struggles to survive. You feel the frustration as he furiously rubs sticks together to start a fire and this leads to my favorite scene in the movie, a sequence of pure jubilation when flames appear. You feel his terror when the need for shelter pushes Chuck to enter a dark cave. The whole time you’re begging that there aren't bats or skeletons or wild animals in there to frighten him (and you). There’s sadness in his forced isolation and comedy in the way he makes the best of his new life. Even though you probably know who Wilson is, I don't want to say much about him except that he's funny, memorable, and kind of disturbing in the way he reveals so much about human nature without actually doing all that much.

Even if you remember what happens, you probably haven't revisited Cast Away for a while now. Look at the theme throughout. The way the picture handles loneliness, how Chuck’s character before the crash turns into the person living on that island, how his obsession with time plays out. It's also a lot of fun to see a survival scenario like this play out. I think everyone at some point wonders what it would be like, how someone might cobble together tools, how they'd gather food, build a shelter, AND find a way to escape. You can tell the tactics Chuck uses have been thoroughly researched and are genuine.

Cast Away gets a bit long towards the end but once the credits finish rolling, you won't believe you just sat through a 144-minute movie. With its memorable scenes, unlikely three-dimensional characters, interesting themes and ideas, great writing, and a great central performance by Tom Hanks, there’s something for everyone here. (On Blu-ray, August 14, 2015)