(rated PG-13, 140 mins) From director Robert “Forrest Gump” Zemeckis comes a contemporary drama about a man in isolation on a desert island. Sound familiar? Timing is everything, following in the mega-hit “Survivor” footsteps as this story deals with one man’s transformation both physically and mentally sans television pals to entertain him! Instead he relies on conversing with a volleyball named “Wilson” while waiting rescue. What he doesn’t know is that the rescue is going to take a little longer than he imagined. Four years later and he’s still there. Of course it doesn’t hurt to see the multi-Academy award winning Hanks have to suffer a bit. On the other hand, whenever an actor loses a lot of weight it has Oscar written all over it, yet Oscar winner Helen Hunt takes on a rather small role as Hank’s girlfriend. So, the story is not about surviving alone, and not about Hank’s losing weight, the story strikes as “Gilligan’s Island” on a sophisticated, contemporary level of male meditation. Zen in 2000. Finding your inner chi and balancing it out. Director Robert Zemeckis does a brilliant job of pacing right from the get-go with a scene of a FedEx truck moving slowly down a rural Texas route to the crashing of underwater dark turbulence. And then it’s daylight. Sunlight. And, a new life. Man as man alone. Finding out just who man really is. For any man never been married and wondering about beating the ticking clock, get marooned on an island, and you’ll “get it.”
