Tom Hanks' powerful, brutal and mature story.

Though Hanks comes across as blandly as ever, at least his solid performance shows he's up to carrying half a movie on his own, and Zemeckis' direction is at first as busily efficient as the protagonist.

Hanks's Everyman quality has never been more aptly utilized: He's the perfect stand-in for all of us who never made it to Eagle Scout.

It musters some astonishing sequences of beauty and wonderment; the emotional impact of Noland’s acute solitude is remarkable, especially as he struggles to hang on to the tenuous threads of his own sanity.