Cast Away

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Cast Away ★★★½ 2000 (PG-13)

Hanks first gained, and then lost, 40 pounds for his role as FedEx employee Chuck Noland, who gets marooned on a South Pacific island for four years. He does an excellent job of showing Chuck's desperation, isolation, and finally, resignation, and for a good chunk of the movie, does it without saying a single word (although later he does get to “talk” to a volleyball named Wilson). Zemeckis does his part with amazing visuals and a restrained approach to the score, which he uses sparingly. 143m/C VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc . Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Nick Searcy, Michael Forest, Viveka Davis, Christopher Noth, Geoffrey Blake, Jenifer Lewis, David Allan Brooks, Nan Martin, Steve Monroe; D: Robert Zemeckis; W: William Broyles Jr.; C: Don Burgess; M: Alan Silvestri.