Movies
Cast Away
Robert Zemeckis, so soon after the frolicsome R&R of What Lies Beneath, returns to his post-Gump pretentiousness. Not so much in what he has to say (an Optimists' Club bumper sticker: "Who knows what the tide could bring?"), but in the lengths he will go to say it. Two hours and twenty minutes of length, give or take. Half an hour for establishment of "character" (a time-obsessed, pager-regulated, cellphone-toting, globe-trotting FedEx executive played by Tom Hanks, or Forrest Gump on bennies), and then well over an hour of rudimentary Robinson Crusoe-isms (fishing with a pointed stick, drinking from leaves, cracking coconuts with a rock: a recipe for rapid boredom), before the hero makes his way back to civilization a wiser and sadder man, with still plenty of time to put his learning into action. Everything in the movie takes longer than it needed to: no slave to the clock, Zemeckis. The spectacular plane crash perhaps seems worth it, but the rest -- in fact the plane crash included -- is spendthrift self-indulgence. With Helen Hunt, Nick Searcy, Chris Noth, Lari White. 2000.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: PG-13
