Cast Away [Special Edition]

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The combination of Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, and director Robert Zemeckis ("Forrest Gump") had to spell "box office," and it did. Besides all that star power, "Cast Away" offers us three motion pictures in one: A love story, an adventure story, and a human-interest story. It´s your basic money´s worth, even if the three stories are so fragmented and disjointed from one another they seem to be playing on different screens. Fox Home Entertainment and DreamWorks present all of this in a special two-DVD set, with extras that even include a featurette on the film´s most important costar, Wilson the volleyball. What more could you ask for?

In part one of the film, Hanks is introduced as Chuck Noland, a hard-driven, over-stressed management-level employee of a large (and quite well-known) international delivery service. Probably never in the history of movies have we seen such a lengthy promotional for a real-life business. The company's name, logo, trucks, offices, and warehouses are given prominent and extensive display in practically every scene. Whoever in the delivery company was responsible for securing this much product placement in a Hollywood film should have been promoted to president of the corporation on the spot. Anyway, Hanks is beleaguered by work in an introductory segment that seems to go on forever (about twenty-three minutes, actually), but he finds comfort in his ever-loving, ever-faithful girlfriend, Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt). Hunt is her usual feisty, frisky self.

Part two, the tropical isle segment, is what people will undoubtedly remember the most from the film, but it's the least credible. Hanks' character is sent to Malaysia, where on the way his plane crashes into the vast waters of the South Pacific. Not to worry: In the middle of the ocean Hanks swims ashore on an uninhabited, unmapped, pinpoint of an island. What are the odds? Here, he survives by his wits alone for, again, what seems like forever, with only a volleyball for company. What are the odds? Then, in desperation he builds a raft, sets out to sea, and like finding a lost wedding ring at the bottom of the Mariana Trench comes upon a ship before he runs out of drinking water. What are the odds?

I liked part three best, even if it belongs in a different movie house altogether. When he finally returns home, he finds things have changed considerably. For one thing, he´s lost a ton of weight. For another, he´s learned to slow down and take his time about life. But I digress. The really important change concerns Kelly. And for once Hollywood doesn't wimp out with a typically gooey ending. Zemeckis has the courage to avoid a pat resolution, providing, instead, a final ten minutes that almost make us believe the whole rest of the movie was worthwhile.

Hanks is, understandably, the main reason for watching the film. Like few other actors he seems as much at home with light comedy as with serious drama. In "Cast Away" it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between the two situations, but Hanks does his best to bring it all off with a straight face. He deserved his Academy Award nomination, for being willing to lose so much poundage if for nothing else. Although I was rooting for Geoffrey Rush in "Quills," I have to give Hanks credit for making his character's desperate and often farfetched situations nearly believable.

The next good reason for watching the film is to enjoy the special effects. They are used more sparingly than in most of Zemeckis's previous efforts, however, which have frequently been special-effects extravaganzas. The effects come off well, primarily in the story's middle section, where the harrowing crash of the jet airliner and the thundering island storms are exceptionally powerful. The last reason for watching the film is that ending I alluded to earlier. It's melodramatic, to be sure, but it makes you think, well, maybe this was a pretty good film after all.

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