Harrison Ford and Anne Heche as castaways on a paradisal island
A small-plane pilot (Harrison Ford) is stranded on a remote Pacific island with a New York magazine editor (Anne Heche). Not only do they have to survive and find a way back to civilization, but they encounter other mortal dangers. David Schwimmer plays the woman's fiancé while Jacqueline Obradors is on hand as the dalliance of the pilot.
"Six Days Seven Nights" (1998) is a lost-on-a-deserted-island adventure/romance sometimes compared to "The African Queen" (1951) for obvious reasons, but "Six Days" seems more farcical. There's also a little "Flight of the Phoenix" (1965) added to the mix.
Harrison is charismatic as the stalwart, but slightly alcoholic loner/pilot while Heche is intelligent and likable. Unfortunately, some of their bickering comes across forced in an eye-rolling way, but the movie makes up for it with a surprisingly potent dramatic scene near the end. Beyond that, the movie is quick-paced comic book fluff that never gets boring, but also never goes deep or realistic enough for my tastes. Nevertheless, I'm a sucker for stranded-on-deserted-island flicks.
The contrast between Heche and Obradors' characters is interesting: Robin (Heche) is attractive in an intelligent plain-Jane kind of way while Angelica (Obradors) is alluring in a bodacious cutie manner. The fact that the latter is air-headed and morally dubious removes her from the realm of possibilities, as far as a lifelong soulmate goes. She's babelicious, though, and the movie tastefully shows it.
The film is short and sweet at 1 hour, 38 minutes, and was shot at Kaua'i, Hawaii. The locations are spectacular.
GRADE: B
