A parable on the power of nature, futility of plans, and mankind’s primal-need for social interaction, Castaway juxtaposes time and routine with its survival-antithesis for a beautifully-acted, elemental case-study on God and the mystery of life. 8.8/10.

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Plot Synopsis: Obsessively punctual FedEx executive Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is en route to an assignment in Malaysia when his plane crashes over the Pacific Ocean during a storm. The sole survivor of the flight, Chuck washes ashore on a deserted island. When his efforts to sail away and contact help fail, he learns how to survive on the island for years, accompanied by only his handmade volleyball friend, Wilson. Will he ever be able to return to civilization?

*Possible Spoilers Ahead*

Official CLC Review

Zemeckis is often hailed as a pioneer of VFX – who just so happens to be a directorial talent all the same. After winning an Academy Award for his work in 1994’s Forrest Gump, power-duo RZ and Tom Hanks reunite for a film that subverts his directorial calling card – a movie with ~no special FX whatsoever; a canvas of powerful storytelling and psychological analysis of the condition of mankind wherein nature alone provides the visual magic. Though its breathtaking, lush Fijian island background ~contradicts its premise’s horror of being shipwrecked and mainland finale is maddeningly-unsatisfying, Castaway is a masterpiece parable on the power of nature, futility of plans, & mankind’s need for social interaction. Juxtaposing time and routine: living and dying by the clock in a scramble of rat-race with its antithesis: a place where there is nothing but time and each day is a quest for survival, the film ambitiously case-studies the mystery of life & tragedy – with a transcendentally-powerful Tom Hanks Academy-nominated performance to buoy it to cinematic heights as tall as its South Pacific waves.

The film starts with a cinematic Fed-Ex commercial, a puff-piece scene tracking packages across nations to introduce us to its central protagonist: Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks). A pragmatic executive who travels for business to set-up new branches (and is way too passionate about his job.. it’s a mail service, calm down), Noland is hyperobsessed with time and schedules to the point wherein each day on his calendar is mapped out to the hour and he carries around a beeper like a surgeon in hospital residency. On Christmas Day, he is called on to go to Malaysia – and the flight he boards after saying goodbye to his wife crashes en route in the Pacific Ocean. The aftermath finds him in a situation antithesizing everything he’s known: a beautiful island wherein there’s nothing but time and schedules/plans matter nothing beyond learning how to survive every day. The reversal is magnificent screenwriting and characterization, black-comedically throwing normal everyday people into the parallel universe of their routine – one teeing up a masterpiece performance Hanks knocks in a grand-slam on.

Tom Hanks’ performance is the greatest achievement of Castaway, and what it buoys it to cinematic heights taller than its tidal-esque South Pacific waves. A gentle, nuanced, doughy everyday guy who loves his job and his wife, he is taken on a Hitchcockian journey few if anyone can even understand the severity and unprecedented capacity of: four years on a deserted island with no food, resources, or supplies beyond the plane’s cargo of the shipwreck. Over time, Hanks develops the character into a hardened, psychologically-deteriorative shell of the average joe we were introduced to – one who can spear a fish from yards away and climb mountains and start fires at the crack of a (natural) whip. The role is one of the great canvases for showcasing the primal universality of survival our ancestors toiled daily in, as well as analyze the human condition in the most insane of circumstances in how that much time away from civilization, rule, order, and company can do to a person. One of the great American actors of All-Time, Hanks gives one of his greatest and most compelling, comprehensive performances ever as Noland – as well as opens up possibilities for such psychoanalysis: foremost through Wilson.

Perhaps most memorable about Castaway is its anthropomorphic volleyball: cleverly-named after its brand, Wilson. One of the most concrete and unforgettable comments on the psychology of mankind and our primal need for social interaction/companionship, he becomes a best friend and fellow-sufferee to Chuck on the island – as well as likely the only thing to keep him even somewhat sane being away from civilization and real people for 4+ years. The arc of the two buddies is beautifully-escalated, skillfully without its sporting good object even able to speak one word besides what Chuck projects his know-it-all personality to be like, to the point where his final death/drift-off into the sea when him and Chuck are separated is one of the saddest deaths I can remember in cinematic history – again, impossibly-so since it’s a freaking volleyball.. with deft screenwriting to be able to make such a preposterous proposition emotional. The act of taking Chuck’s only sanity-tether and best friend away from him is just one of the many fateful actions that bring us to another huge question the film poses: where is God in traumatic times like these?

One of the largest symbolic parts of Castaway is the overarching atmosphere and fate – and noticeable absence of God during this. A normal flight goes wrong and kills everyone on board except one, who is exiled to an island to live alone without food, resources, or even human companionship for 4+ YEARS. The film brings a critical eye as big as its latter whale’s to the central dichotomy of religion: God is viewed as an all-good, merciful, omnipotent being.. but war, death, disease, and tragedies like this challenge the notion of his benevolence, or even presence at all. One day, a piece of scrap metal from a port-o-potty washes up on the beach and gives Chuck the perfect sail for a raft to get off the island: the first ostensible act of God or a kind force in the universe in nearly half a decade of daily fights for survival it’s amazing he survived. On Noland’s odyssey through the seas when his raft makes it past the surf and into open waters, a whale accompanies the crew of him and Wilson – looking directly at him and spouting two times: when he loses his only friend and tether to sanity in Wilson as a soul-breaking loss God played a sick joke on him waking him up just to experience, and when a cargo ship passes so he can finally be rescued. The latter can be seen as a benevolent act – with the sail-delivery the only two ones in the entire movie – but it really isn’t.. because of the sadistic plan he’s worked in the background of all this during Noland’s South Pacific tenure, which Chuck returns to experience the ghastly, spirit-breaking horror of firsthand.

Before we get to that, a word must be said on the breathtaking lushness and unspeakable beauty of the film’s Fijian island background. For a film whose premise is the horror of being shipwrecked, the setting choice isn’t exactly one people would be disappointed to be on. In fact, having been there myself on travel in the past, Fiji is one of the most beautiful places in the WORLD – a South Pacific paradise where islands can charge $1,000+/night to stay at their five-star resorts.. or Millions to buy a private one your own. Noland gets to live on one for free, minus the luxurious structures, other people, and resources like food and water that do tip the scales into survival instead of vacation.. but still, that view. The film would’ve been far better off choosing a less jaw-dropping location to prevent contradicting your own argument and thematic point with a backdrop most people would rather be in than trapped in suburban neighborhoods or 9-5 cubicles/desk-jobs. The predeceasing point is more of a nitpick than the objective malice the film brings upon itself in its final act – one of the most flawed and maddening finale’s I’ve ever witnessed and, as mentioned above, a continuance of the plot theme of a sick joke by a mischievous God. Noland survives all that inescapable hardship and finally finds his way back home to the Kelly that has been his sole reason to live and persevere through all this.. only for her to exercise pure cowardice of the unspeakable kind by sending her obnoxious, overstepping new husband to meet him for her. To make matters even somehow worse than being in that situation alone, the new husband is Chuck’s DENTIST – the one he cried out for in his self-surgical pain on the island – whom he realizes not only married his wife but has children with her, so she must have moved on FAST – like, within months.

The experience might be the most brutal, uncomfortable, and anger-inducing situation I’ve ever witnessed in the entire history of cinema – only made worse by the fact that Chuck goes to visit Kelly at her swanky new mansion to hear her sound unfazed by the situation and see that their kid must be 2-3 years old, with 9 months of pregnancy and a wedding at least weeks to months before that meaning that Kelly betrayed him and went out with his ritzy dental surgeon mere months after the death of her supposedly-‘beloved’ husband, while having the audacity to claim he’s the ‘love of her life’ she can’t even leave a sham marriage to be with. Infidelity is a thread weaved throughout the film, starting and ending with the arc of the sculptor’s husband cheating in Russia and divorce papers being amongst the packages that make it with Chuck to the island, but none hit as hard or as brutally as Kelly’s to Chuck’s in such a brutal situation and impossibly quick-turnaround made even worse by the admission she ‘always knew he was alive’.. Noland is a shell of a man in the finale, not even sticking up for himself against an adultery-laden, messed-up situation to his wife he spent the whole film fantasizing about, or God for bringing him back to a fate even worse than being stuck on that island, here on a new metaphorical one alone. Fundamentally disagreeing with his ‘life gives you lemons, you just always have to be thankful for them’, I find the logic dismissive of rightful depressive and mental health issues and reminiscent of Helsinki syndrome and abusive relationships – where, sad as they are, it’s better to rebuke/leave than stay with someone who treats you as poorly as God did Chuck through all of this, the icing on the cake being five-star sushi and crab platters at his coming-home party after having to eat them raw to survive for years on the island. While the ending scene does perhaps hint at redemption with two cheated-on spouses finding each other in Chuck and the sculptor, the end shot should’ve been far more pronounced than an ambiguous half-smile, and nothing can fix how bad a taste that messed-up, messily-scripted , anticlimactic, and unsatisfying Kelly finale left in my mouth. Awful.

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Conclusion

Overall, Castaway is a wildly-ambitious masterstroke of psychoanalysis and humanity exposition that rises above its objective flaws. Zemeckis has proven he’s a directorial talent for the ages beyond mere VFX-innovation, and Tom Hanks’ resumé now boasts another magnificent entry it didn’t even need but further solidifies his alpha-status as one of the top actors in America. Though its breathtaking, lush Fijian island background ~contradicts its premise’s horror of being shipwrecked and mainland finale is maddeningly-unsatisfying, Castaway is a masterpiece parable on the power of nature, futility of plans, & mankind’s need for social interaction. Juxtaposing time and routine: living and dying by the clock in a scramble of rat-race with its antithesis: a place where there is nothing but time and each day is a quest for survival, the film ambitiously case-studies the mystery of life & tragedy – with a transcendentally-powerful Tom Hanks Academy-nominated performance to buoy it to cinematic heights as tall as its South Pacific waves.

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