DigDog
Lifer
- Jun 3, 2011
- 13,498
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i remember Castaway had poor review when it came out, and i never could fully figure out why. I watched it twice and loved it even better the second time around.
My guess is that Castaway has those two sections before and after the island, which don't sit well with the rest of the theme - and also, they have different photography. This was probably intentional, but i can see that the result wasnt great.
In Castaway, Finch (lol) .. ermm .. Chuck Noland (Hanks) is alone, with himself. He is his own antagonist. The old Chuck, from the world of the opening scenes, offices, schedules, corporate meetings, is in contrast to the needs of Chuck Of The Island. The scenes where Chuck argues with himself, or tries to keep himself company, are glorious.
What spoils the film .. possibly .. is the last segment, where Chuck returns home, but finds himself not fit to return to that old world. I guess once you have the protagonist Win(tm) against his struggle - i.e. escaping the island - you don't really want a bitter-tasting ending, no matter how appropriate it is to the setting.
In Finch, Chuck ... i mean, Finch, is alone. That's it. At least, on a human level.
I suppose the idea behind the film was to have Finch attempt a human connection with the robots, and the dog. While you could make a film about a human trying to connect to an inanimate object, you would need to do away with all the postapocalyptic bullshit and focus on the psyche of that man, and Finch doesn't go anywhere near those depths, his motivation is literally just "i love this dog".
Even the fairly mediocre I Am Legend had Dr Neville (Smith) fighting his own mind. They could have gone at least that far (but, probably, would have still sucked as a clone of the aforementioned).
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