Tom Hanks holds much of ‘Cast Away’ on his own
Rare is the performer who can hold a movie on his or her own for more than half of the film’s running time.
Well, OK ... in Tom Hanks’ case, on his own with some help from a volleyball.
Being shown by Freeform on Tuesday, May 14, the somewhat underrated 2000 drama “Cast Away” showcases one of the greatest challenges the two-time Oscar winner has had in his career. Playing a FedEx worker who ends up the lone survivor of a plane crash and must learn to survive on an otherwise deserted island, Hanks is thoroughly compelling to watch.
As it becomes increasingly clear that rescuers aren’t coming for Chuck Noland (Hanks), who regrets having left his fiancee Kelly (Helen Hunt) behind in Memphis, he learns by necessity how to hydrate — freshly acquired coconut milk is a help — and how to create a fire to cook, um, “delicacies” that he ordinarily might not eat if he had anything more conventional to choose from.
Oh, and about that volleyball, one of the most famous pieces of sports equipment in screen history: Chuck retrieves it from one of the FedEx packages that washed up on shore with him, and in honor of the ball’s brand, he names it Wilson. He also gives it a “face” of sorts, using his blood to paint those features, and it’s no small feat that Hanks gives it a personality just by talking to it. And because of that, the way their “relationship” ultimately plays out is heartbreaking.
“Cast Away” also underscores the fact that if any filmmaker can devise a harrowing aerial-crisis scene, it’s Robert Zemeckis. The director would do it again 12 years later with the Denzel Washington-starring “Flight,” but in “Cast Away,” you can actually feel your feet getting wet along with Hanks through a pilot’s-seat view of a stormwracked ocean rushing up toward the rapidly plunging plane. It’s a thoroughly harrowing sequence that’s hard to shake once you’ve seen it.
Hopefully not to give too much away, “Cast Away” doesn’t end on the island, and writer William Broyles
Jr, gives Hanks a brilliant opportunity to bring Chuck full-circle. The actor makes it evident that the character has been changed forever by his ordeal, as have his loved ones (also including a close friend and co-worker wonderfully played by Nick Searcy). Though it amounts only to a cameo, the late singer-actress Lari White makes her mark as a FedEx customer with a special connection to Chuck that she doesn’t suspect. Chris Noth also turns up briefly.
There isn’t another movie quite like “Cast Away,” and in telling its tale so meaningfully and memorably, the picture reaffirms that there isn’t another movie star quite like Tom Hanks.