Wolff rating: GOOD
Plot summary: FedEx executive finds himself on a plane going down over the Pacific. Good god, man, don't watch the trailers.
Biased, pithy comments: I had mixed feelings about this movie, but finally decided to give it the thumbs-up on the basis of how enraptured I was while watching it, rather than how I felt afterwards. When Hanks is lost on his island, I couldn't look away---as his psychology changes and thoughts crossed his mind, you could see it; that's acting, folks. Even at the end, as more...uh, stuff...happened, I wanted to see where they wanted to take it. The cinematography and editing are great, as is the minimal soundtrack. It's a non-conventional movie with a big budget and talented filmmakers; for nearly that reason alone, it should be seen. However, that doesn't mean I wasn't bugged by the fact that it seemed to be a story in search of a reason to be. I didn't worry so much about the innards of Chuck Noland, and the non-Everyman moments come late in the film. The life lessons learned here aren't exactly new, or even very important to anyone in the film. Likewise, you could tell that there were several different possible endings for the film, and they just included them all. Hanks even is reduced to telling the audience how he felt towards the end, which is never a good sign for a story. It's not clear Zemeckis and his band really took the film any further than, say, the original novel of ``Robinson Crusoe'' or ``Treasure Island.'' A good watch, though; there are many, many worse and less creative movies on this planet.
Other Notes: Hanks lost 50 pounds over six months for the part. Yow. The trailers are obscenely revealing for this film, which is an insult to the audience (although apparently Zemeckis thinks this is a good idea financially despite howls of protest from movie-lovers and his own feeling that its a mistake).
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Tom Hanks, and nearly no one else (well, maybe Helen Hunt and Nick Searcy).
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis