At the Movies: `Cast Away'

The key to unraveling â€” and appreciating â€” ``Cast Away'' is in its title. <br><br>Not ``castaway,'' a single-word noun denoting a descendant of Gilligan and company or a participant

Tuesday, December 19th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

The key to unraveling â€” and appreciating â€” ``Cast Away'' is in its title.

Not ``castaway,'' a single-word noun denoting a descendant of Gilligan and company or a participant in a staged reality series. But ``cast away,'' an active verb phrase conveying a hopeless man's sense that life, with dispassionate cruelty, has tossed him aside.

The question is whether filmgoers will want to bother pondering such ideas or whether, amid ``Cast Away's'' sparse storytelling trappings, they will feel bored as though trapped in the horse latitudes.

Despite the lure of a reunion between ``Forrest Gump'' star Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis, there's a lot of potential tedium to be found in ``Cast Away.'' But for anyone who can think and chew popcorn at the same time, the silences and simple survival visuals at the heart of the film provide an intriguing framework for examining elemental humanity when the veneer of society is stripped away.

Hanks plays Chuck Noland, a by-the-clock Federal Express troubleshooter who washes up on an island after a plane crash and is stranded for four years.

Separated from the two things he cherishes most, his work and his soul mate (Helen Hunt), Chuck goes from master of control to incompetent savage. In an instant, Chuck is transplanted from an existence where necessities come with the flick of a finger to one where the friction to start a fire proves a monumental labor.

While Hunt's role leaves her little to do, Hanks' frustrated cries and stares and gradually hollowing eyes nicely capture the despair of a man who comes to realize he may spend the rest of his life in solitude.

``Cast Away'' was shot in two parts, separated by about a year so Hanks could tone himself down from Chuck's civilized flaccidness to muscled leanness after four years of hardscrabble living.

By depicting Hanks alone on an island much of the time, dealing largely with basic needs, the movie demands that audiences articulate the deeper emotional horror of what it means to be cast away.

Even after his rescue, when Chuck has the chance to fulfill Hollywood convention by telling others what he felt and consequently, how moviegoers should feel, he remains fairly mute. It's left to viewers to puzzle through the notions of utter exile, where the only choices are survival or death, and reintegration to society where choices overwhelm.

This was a bold approach by Hanks and Zemeckis, who chose to depict the island interlude with primal semirealism â€” no voice-overs, no music, no cuts to the folks back home fretting, grieving, eventually moving on. The only thing that accentuates the harsh images of subsistence are occasional mutterings Chuck makes to himself or to a volleyball that washes ashore, on which he paints a face using his own bloody handprint.

Inordinately sweeping statements could be made about the movie's theme of survival against all odds. But ``Cast Away'' doesn't try to cut that deeply or stereotypically.

This is a more fundamental story of a man forced to realize how precarious his place and his options were in the world. When that place and those options are restored, he hesitates, figuratively and literally at a crossroad, marveling that he can step in any direction without the preoccupation of how to fill the belly or shelter the body.

Who wouldn't be rather sadly bemused by clicking a lighter and producing flames after years of chafing sticks of wood together?

``Cast Away,'' written by William Broyles Jr. from an idea that Hanks originated, runs 144 minutes and is rated PG-13 for some intense images and action sequences.

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Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

G â€” General audiences. All ages admitted.

PG â€” Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 â€” Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.

R â€” Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

NC-17 â€” No one under 17 admitted.