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In this latest picture by Robert Zemicks, Hanks plays Chuck Noland, an ambitious company man who works for Federal Express. He loves Elvis, lives in Memphis, Tennessee, is ruled by the clock, and unhesitatingly sacrifices his Christmas Eve plans to once more hop an international flight to troubleshoot for his beloved Fed Ex. This, of course, is disappointing to his girlfriend, Kelly Frears (played by Helen Hunt), but they gallantly open their Christmas gifts in the car on the way to the airport. Chuck is ready to ask Kelly to marry him but instead promises that he'll "be right back," something he would have learned not to say if he had ever seen Scream.

He doesn't come right back. The plane crashes, washing him (and several Fed Ex packages) up onto a deserted island. The time on the island is filmed exceptionally well. Never before have I been totally engrossed in a story line involving just one character. That is what the bulk of this film is; one character, striving to survive, striving to reunite with society, and striving to have an intelligent relationship with a soccer ball appropriately named "Wilson." He transforms into a Robinson Crusoe type character, learning how to survive on the bare essentials and a pair of ice skates he found in one of the packages. I must admit that I laughed at bits and pieces of this film, and then felt an eerie regret when I realized that I was laughing at another man's unfortunate circumstances. One has to feel empathy for this man, especially in scenes where he realizes that he let parts of his life slip through fingers like sand.

Compared to what takes place on an island, the rest of this film seems strangely out of place. On the island, there were no other characters, no background music, and very little "noise" save the sound of Hanks' voice and waves endlessly beating on the shore giving a very intimidating sense of loneliness. But yet, I believe that is what the director Zemicks had in mind. The circumstances that are uncovered when Nolan returns are meant to be a shock and somewhat of an unpleasant experience. The ending is a little disappointing and a little bit melancholy, but so is life sometimes. One has to get use to that fact. Besides, as Hanks' character says, "the sun will always rise," and indeed it does in the last two or three minutes of the film.

What is this film? Is it a movie about man against nature? Is it a movie about man against himself? Is it a two and half-hour Fed Ex commercial? It's all of this and more. I think it would really be cool if the Academy gave "Wilson" a "Best Supporting Actor" nomination...

Adam Duckworth 1/4/2001

Tom Hanks does it again and in a most unlikely way. He's reunited with director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump), but their collaboration here is so much more subtle and interesting than the hugely over-rated Gump. Hanks plays a FedEx manager whose plane crashes in the south Pacific. Drifting onto a deserted rock of an island, he's forced to carve out an existence where his only companionship is a deteriorating volleyball. The middle 90 minutes of the film is a tour de force of acting and editing, as Hanks's meager life somehow reaches the level of compelling epic. It is a testimony to his acting chops that this sequence is never less than gripping, and everyone deserves a pat on the back for eschewing any easy, trite philosophy. Instead the audience is left to contemplate its own lifestyle--what would it do if it were stranded on a similar island.

The love story with Helen Hunt, which bookends the movie, can't compare to the island scenes, but Hunt and Hanks give it all they can, and again the filmmakers should be commended for avoiding the obvious happy ending. In fact, some audiences might be put off by the film's ambiguous conclusion, but I thought it was brave. Now if only they could've avoided the intrusive product placement; I guess you can't have everything. 

J. Robert Parks 1/8/2000