A
Breath Of Fresh Island Air.
©
Jon Dunmore, 20 Oct 2005.
Chuck
Noland (plump Tom Hanks), inextricably married to his time-sensitive, nerve-fraying
job as FedEx consultant, instead of to quietly-suffering fiancé Kelly (Helen
Hunt), finds himself suddenly and unceremoniously negated from Civilization's
jetstream when a plane crash leaves him Stranded On A Desert Island.
 A
"Crusoe 2000" tale, by way of Thoreau's Walden, director Zemeckis
audaciously grants his audience their intelligence, in making Chuck's island interlude
all the more powerful and poignant by what he leaves out. There is minimal
dialogue and no soundtrack, no undercurrent of computers and electrical paraphernalia
pulsating subliminally - the bedrock of ambient sound upon which our society runs;
no lawnmower growling on faraway lawn, no cell phones, iPods, piped jazz, tv commercials
bombarding lies of "whitening whites" - in essence, a slice of Heaven!
Nonetheless,
for thematic closure, Chuck must necessarily escape back to First World indolence,
where he finds he cannot reconcile his new Life-awareness with that of society's
stultifying rigors, nor can he rekindle the "love" which kept hope alive
whilst marooned, enabling him to then embrace a free-wheeling optimism, only evidenced
in the film's final shot. For
those who value their quietude and the welcome respite from rat-racing it brings.
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