Quote:
| Al, Castaway would shock me, I found it to be mostly a case of restrained Hollywood filmmaking. This story could have been pushed in very interesting directions, but Zemeckis/Hanks chose not to do so. |
They copped-out at the end. All the wonderful subtleties of the movie were erased by an ending comprised of a ham-handed, sophomorically symbolic series of epiphanies accompanied by that achingly saccarine score - I wasn't the only one in the theater muttering "gimme a break" when Noland sums up his whole experience with that Hallmark card bullshit or when the perfect woman with the quaint truck and fluffy dog meets him at the crossroads...
And what the hell was that about delivering her package being the thing that saved his life? I thought the point of the film was that he realized it was his love for Hunt and all those parts of his life
apart from his duties as a Fed-Ex employee that pulled him through? Isn't that the difference between the Noland at the beginning of the film and the Noland after his experience on the island? Why would his delivery of a Fed-Ex package, even one with a neat little drawing on it, be the reason he stuck it out, didn't off himself, and risked a miserable death on the seas in one last-ditch hope of being rescued? Are you saying it
wasn't his love for Hunt and the realization of what was
truly important in life that saved him and inspired him to go on - rather, it was fulfilling his duties as a Fed-Ex employee? WTF????
But there were so many wonderful, little things up to that point. I
loved the way Zemeckis chose to portray the coming-home scene, with the inevitable big celebration seen
after the fact and only on a tiny TV screen in the background. I think any other Hollywood filmmaker would've felt obliged to strike up the band and do a big rousing version of that homecoming celebration, but Zemeckis understood that this couldn't be the focus of the film at that point - it had to stay with Noland, it had to stay internal - it was his reaction, the look in his eyes, his somber demeanor in striking contrast to all the hoopla, that was the important shot.
Likewise, I loved the reunion between he and Hunt. I thought their body language was perfect and the dialog was very nicely observed (Hunt constantly trying to minimize the harm of her picture-perfect life being thrust in Hanks' face: 'It's quite a house'. 'It's quite a mortgage, too'. 'Your children are beautiful'. 'They're a handful'.) And when Hunt came running out to the car doing that little wave thing with her hand, like a cross between a revealing 'Wait, wait, it's really me now, ready to open up to you!' and a practical 'roll down that window - don't leave me so abruptly (like at the airport)!'
If they'd ended the film at the point where he returns to his friend's house
before he delivers that 'never know what the tide will bring in' line in important, this-is-the-moral-of-the-story sounding tones, it would have been well up the list of my favorites. At that point, we
understand his loss. We
understand that, after all he's been through and all he's come to understand, that he
will go on. They could've mirrored those shots over the dinner table at the beginning of the film when Zemeckis trains his camera deep into the eyes of Hanks and Hunt - we understand what they're thinking without them telling us. By trying to force it all into a Hallmark card sentiment (and then extending that with some truly simple-minded symbolism), the scope and majesty of his experience seems reduced and trivialized.
I left the theater demoralized, wondering why Zemeckis seemed to not trust the audience to understand and be fulfilled by an ending that's more graceful, quiet and subtle - an ending befitting the rest of the film.
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"Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere."
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