Cast Away (2000): Movie Review (with link)

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Robert Zemeckis’ 2000 drama Cast Away is one of those films that aspires for cinematic greatness, nearly achieves it, yet leaves the viewer with no small amount of disappointment at the very end.  

Essentially a 20thCentury take on Daniel Defoe’s classic tale Robinson Crusoe, Cast Away stars two-time Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks as a FedEx systems analyst who is stranded on an island after his plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean. 

Chuck Noland: We live and we die by time. And we must not commit the sin of losing our track on time. 

It  is late 1995.  Chuck Noland is one of FedEx’s most driven analysts; he is a man who is obsessed with efficiency and time management, which is logical considering that he works for a company which lives by its "Absolutely, Positively Anytime" slogan.  Based in the company’s headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, Chuck is tasked with ferreting problems with the transit of packages in such places as St. Petersburg in Russia.  If there are snags in the system, Chuck hops on FedEx planes at a moment’s notice and straightens the kinks out. 

Whenever he’s not troubleshooting for his employers, Chuck is romantically involved with Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt of The Sessions).  They have been in a steady relationship and are planning to get married, but Chuck’s roving problem-solving duties either keep them apart. Even when they are in the midst of a Christmas celebration with the Noland family, Chuck’s job takes precedence and he’s called away to solve an issue at the FedEx depot in Malaysia. 

Kelly accompanies Chuck to the airport, where they exchange Christmas presents and a kiss goodbye. He boards a MD-11 jet and she drives back home, thinking that this will be a routine troubleshooting gig that will last only a few days. 

Chuck Noland: I'll be right back. 

Unfortunately, the fickle hand of Fate intervenes in the form of a huge tropical storm in the MD-11’s path.  The flight crew tries to find a fuel-efficient route around the cyclone, but to no avail.  The MD-11 is caught in the edges of the storm and is so violently tossed up and down by the turbulence that it crashes into the ocean, leaving Chuck as its sole survivor. 

Chuck manages to find his way onto a desert island which is far away from the normal transpacific shipping and air routes.  With only the clothes on his back and the odd contents of packages which drift ashore from the MD-11 – including a party dress, a pair of ice skates, a volleyball and even some videotape – Chuck must figure out a way to survive…and eventually, how to somehow get back home. 

 For more insights about this film, please visit the complete review at Epinions.

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