My cousin recently became an Eagle Scout. Not to bore you with family details but it is a huge honor, as many of you know. Why do I mention it? Well, when you see a film like CAST AWAY and consider the circumstances, I for one know I’d be screwed. In fact, most of us wouldn’t last a week, yet people like my cousin would be making radios and sailboats out of coconuts. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

      Tom Hanks is good, no question. Anyone who can make you care about a volleyball, like it was a real person, has to be a tremendous performer. And the events on the island are simply marvelous. It’s off the island though that doesn’t seem to fit, both before and after. When he is rescued, a number of months are skipped over, leaving out most of his transition back into regular life. Why? Including these moments should have been mandatory, but they’re left out. And even though I liked the movie, this is probably why I felt something was missing afterwards. I wonder now if the original script was just the island, and they added the other stuff as filler.

      In retrospect, most critics really pounced on the ending, but I don’t agree. That’s a nice touch that was set into motion from the beginning. Still, I suspect that Zemeckis knew this would be singled out, hence the stylistic way he concludes the film without trying to be so obvious, even though there’s no way around it really. But despite their objections, general consensus towards this film remained positive. And that’s the best way I can sum it up. CAST AWAY is a good movie, just not a great one.