Cast Away remains daring and quite unique even though it could have been even more, and Hanks' performance is really something to be seen. Hanks delivers one of the best performances of the year. He did this despite great difficulties, among them: Zemeckis and his collaborator, Broyles. While his philosophical ventures seem stuck in the shallow end of the pool, Zemeckis takes an important step forward as a filmmaker. One more project like this (or Gump) and this could be the best actor/director team since DeNiro and Scorsese.