Tom Hanks takes the risk in film that most other actors could not, mainly because of his enormous popularity with audiences and in Hollywood. Hanks reaches a interactive peak with the audience when his dialogue is minimal as he endures the mental and physical challenges in his environment. Helen Hunt (“As Good As It Gets”, “What Women Want”) gets to demonstrate her formidable acting skills only in a few key parts of the film as Kelly Frears, Chuck‘s love interest.

The awesome special effects add to the realism of the story as Chuck drives himself mentally and physically to find solutions to his seemingly hopeless problems. Natural elements constitute most of the film’s sound, so the musical score doesn’t have an extraordinary effect until Chuck makes an essential breakthrough in the plot, then the score sweeps over the audience to boost an emotional highpoint Chuck feels at this time.

The film does draw some nice comparisons between the two environments mainly to progress Chuck’s new direction in life and remind him of the parallels of the modern world and his “island” world.

Unfortunately, filmmakers make the same emotional point of Chuck’s romantic feelings towards Kelly not once, not twice, but three times after experience in his second life phase on the island. The look on Chuck’s face in an interior airport scene should tell you enough, but filmmakers insist on adding a sweet, but unnecessary scene during one of Chuck’s restless nights and again when he discusses his life status with his friend Stan, played by Nick Searcy. More points about the contrast between Chuck’s fast-paced, materialistic world and his primitive world on the island would’ve been nice.