Cast Away (2000)

IMDb plot summary: A FedEx executive must transform himself physically and emotionally to survive a crash landing on a deserted island.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Starring Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt.

(Mild spoilers.)

This movie was a big deal right as I was heading into high school, but I somehow never got around to seeing it. I hadn't even made any kind of conscious effort to find out about it, but I realized as I watched it that I had a pretty solid idea of how everything played out, just from hearing so many references to it growing up. I think that might have dampened my enjoyment just a little bit, having to navigate around the serious dramatic moments that I'd only known as punchlines up until that point.

That being said, I think it's a pretty good movie. Tom Hanks, unsurprisingly, does a great job carrying the movie and conveying the mental state of the main character. One of the things I appreciated most about it was that it wasn't primarily an escape thriller like 127 Hours or Gravity or, even more recently, The Martian. It spent a good 40 minutes of movie dealing with the aftermath of his experience. It could have just ended with the boat picking him up, but by giving us a window into life after the escape, it refocused it back to being a character drama first and foremost. That's a nice shift, even if it does mean that the movie as a whole feels a bit oddly paced.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Cast Away > Happythankyoumoreplease
Cast Away < Eat Pray Love
Cast Away < Strictly Ballroom
Cast Away < Die Hard
Cast Away > The Age of the Medici
Cast Away > 2012
Cast Away > 17 Again
Cast Away > The Forbidden Kingdom
Cast Away > The Nanny Diaries
Cast Away > Broken Arrow
Cast Away > Short Circuit
Final spot: #1063 out of 2428.