Cast Away

Saw it last night for the first time. We were only going to watch an hour of it (Mrs. Curley had got from the library several weeks ago-its probably overdue), but forgot the time and watched the whole thing.

I am not a Tom Hanks fan. I appreciate that he is a very talented actor-I just don't ever seem to like the character he plays or the movies he plays in. (There is one exception, but it slips my mind at the moment.)

Cast Away once again shows his talent. Warning-spoilers ahead if you haven't seen it (by now-it came out in 2000?).

Hanks is an always in a hurry FedEx troubleshooter. He gives his girlfriend a ring on Christmas right before he is called away on business. The airplane crashes and Hanks is the sole survivor, washing ashore on an uninhabited (by man or beast) island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Here he stays for 4+ years, learning how to start a fire, fish, pull his own teeth etc. What keeps him going? The movie gives at least two answers.

First, the one possession he manages to keep is a pocket watch given to him by his girlfriend, and which has her picture in it. He looks to it constantly for hope and draws her picture on the wall of the cave.

Secondly, there is the package. Many FedEx packages wash up on the island. At first he just gathers them, but eventually he opens them-all but one. It seems he is determined to leave it unopened and deliver it.

To keep his sanity he "makes friends" with a volleyball on which he has painted a face in blood. This is "Wilson".

After 3 years he tries to commit suicide by hanging-"to do the one thing I still had control over"-yet he tests the branch first with a log on a rope and it breaks-so he can't even do this. This would have been the perfect spot for a conversion-realizing he has no control over anything: God does. But unfortunately God is absent from the film.

For example, earlier when he buries the dead washed up body of a crew member of the plane, he stands by the grave and says, "Well, that's it." He offers no prayer.

He doesn't find God on the island-so it seems the movie has no purpose-except maybe the package.

He does eventually return to civilization and find his girl married with children. They have feelings but realize they can't go back. The movie ends with Hanks delivering the package-the implication is that this was the whole purpose-for the recipient is an attractive women.

On the island is by far the best of the movie. Once Hanks returns to civilization, the movie drags-fortunately it is almost over.

But really, it was esthetically disappointing-not that I am looking for Christianity to be beaten into the viewers, but it doesn't make sense to me that this man would not determine some relationship with God after 4+ years on the island-especially after his bout with despair.

Thus, here again is a well-acted Tom Hanks movie where I just can't relate.