Grade: B

Verdict: Worth it for Tom Hanks alone (or is that an alone Tom Hanks?)

Details: Starring Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt and Wilson the Volleyball. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Rated PG-13 for violence and adult situations (a scary plane wreck, island hardships). Two hours, 23 minutes.

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Review: In “Forrest Gump,” Tom Hanks learned that life is a box of chocolates.

In “Cast Away,” he learns that life is no day at the beach — even if he is stranded on a tropical island in the Pacific.

Reunited with Robert Zemeckis, his "Forrest Gump" director, Hanks tackles the role of Chuck Noland, a clockwatching efficiency expert for FedEx. Chuck runs his life by the clock, reminding other workers, “We never allow ourselves the sin of losing touch with time.”

Ironically, Chuck allows himself the sin of losing touch with his personal life. He continually puts his job ahead of his loyal, live-in girlfriend, Kelly (Helen Hunt in her fourth — or is it 14th? — role this year).

On Christmas Eve 1995, they head for the airport so he can catch a last-minute FedEx flight. Just before he boards, he says to Kelly, “I'll be right back.”

Famous last words. The plane goes down in a storm — a harrowing sequence — and Chuck washes ashore on a deserted island. For the next 45 minutes or so, in a virtually wordless sequence, we watch Chuck acquire survival skills. He learns to open a coconut. To spear fish. To make a fire. He dabbles in primitive art and some very primitive dentistry. He makes friends with a volleyball he names Wilson.

Four years later, and 50 pounds lighter, Chuck sports long, unkempt hair, a lean torso and a mini-loincloth. Sort of like Charlton Heston in “Planet of the Apes.” His survival skills are honed, but that doesn't stop him from making one last attempt to return to civilization.

What Chuck learns during his island sojourn is to cast away all the meaningless clutter that's clouded his life and to concentrate on the essentials. He becomes simple yet wise. Sort of like, well, Forrest Gump. Which, alas, is where the film runs into trouble. Zemeckis settles for cozy homilies (again, à la “Gump”) rather than daring to examine the transforming effect of Chuck's ordeal. To the picture's credit, there's some very dicey stuff going on here — stuff about isolation, desperation and despair. But Zemeckis ultimately opts to play it safe, letting his existential themes remain implied rather than explored. He wraps up things so neatly that he almost does a disservice to Hanks' bravura performance.

And make no mistake; this is a tour de force, a courageous and surprisingly un-self-indulgent exercise in pared-down acting that makes Hanks, yet again, a likely Oscar contender. There's no “Gilligan's Island” cuteness here, no “Swiss Family Robinson” tinker toys, no back-to-nature mysticism as in “The Black Stallion.” Things are appallingly hard for Chuck and he responds in an all too human way. So be aware going in, the particulars of survival can get a little yucky. An up-close-and-personal tooth extraction and repeated coral-reef mutilations make "Cast Away" as hard on the audience as it is on Chuck. And the time Hanks spends marooned goes on a bit too long. But we never lose our connection with Hanks. Or, to tell the truth, with dear ol' Wilson. Can we make an Oscar category for best supporting performance by an inanimate object?

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Cox News Service