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'Cast Away'
Where to begin...
First off, I must say that I like Tom Hanks. I was completely impressed by his weight gain and then almost complete weight loss for this film. The man was a skeleton for parts of this film. It's not easy to do this so I give him mucho kudos for doing that. People don't realize how thin you actually have to be to come off as thin on film. To come off as a skeleton on film... that must be torture...
However, the film was too slow for me and had one of the worst payoffs in a movie ever. He doesn't get back together with his girlfriend and never opens those boxes. C'mon, you're on an island with nothing to do. One of the first things you'd do would be to open those boxes to see if there was food in there.
I loved the idea of the 'character' of Wilson in the film. He is a major player in the film. It's a tough element to pull off and Zemeckis tried. But too often during that film did I think 'he's talking to a volleyball'. The audience should buy into it completely and I didn't. ie. The dummy in 'Magic' was a character. A freakin' creepy ass character. I bought it. A lot of it was the way that director portrayed him. I didn't buy Wilson...
Another huge thing that bothered me was not seeing much of a transition from skinny, dirty island Tom Hanks to back to the real world Tom Hanks. Suddenly, he's rescued and the next time we see him he's on a plane all perfectly groomed and somehow with all of his weight back. To see him transitioning back into 'normal' life would have been great.
As far as emotional themes in this film, I can see how one would tear up at the end of this film. IF one actually bought the characters and didn't resent Helen Hunt for seeming to quick to move on I could see crying at that part. (I know a lot of time passed, but to hook up with someone and then marry him while Hanks is on the island... It seems kind of fast to me.) What almost slammed me emotionally was the plane crash itself. (Too bad it was one big ad for Fed Ex...)
In order to love a film, I must buy into the credibility that the film is trying to sell us on. I didn't buy the Hanks/Hunt relationship, I didn't buy Wilson, I didn't buy the ending, I didn't see enough of a transition for Hanks coming back to life...
I felt cast off by this film.
My 2 cents.
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