Castaway, la ragazza venerdì

This is yet another one of those movies that tries to study complex or unusual male-female relationships and thus what any particular viewer will get out of it depends upon that viewer's own life experience. Another reviewer here characterized the relationship in this film as being between "two selfish morons" and that is about the way I took it as well. If you have ever been in a long-term relationship with a selfish partner you will see a lot that looks familiar here, and as a tool to help sort out your own feelings and make sense of your own experiences you might find watching this useful. Otherwise, I'm not sure what purpose the film or the underlying literary treatment it was based on would serve. Basically this movie is about two not-especially likable people who don't really like each other all that much, either, trying to have a relationship together, and the entertainment value you get from that exists right at that level.

Yes, there is a good deal of nudity here involving the heroine, but it is usually not especially erotic; it is presented so matter-of-factly and almost entirely in non-sexual situations (in fact, most often while she is entirely alone) to the point that I got the impression that she was more of a sensualist than anything else, and certainly she was no party girl or anyone else with anything more than an ordinary female interest in sex, if that. Moreover, I never got the impression that she was conspicuously teasing the male lead as some other reviewers seem to have indicated, beyond the mere fact that she was there with him on this same island with nothing or nobody else around, and granting that such circumstances alone might make for some of the subtlest and most provoking kind of erotic torment possible. Certainly there are women in real life capable of the same.

The male main figure is no less selfish in his own way, and the mere fact that at his age he can't think of any way to bed this woman other to demand sex like a love-sick college freshman shows it as well as anything else. For a man of his maturity to behave the way he does certainly justifies the description of "lecher" given him by some other reviewers. Whatever complaints might be assessed against his would-be mate, he certainly didn't make much effort to treat her very well. If the dummy had done just a few simple things to make her feel good about herself for having made the decision to shack up with him on this island for a year, they both would likely have had a much better time. But he was too selfish or at least too self-absorbed to see that, something that is shown in the film to be just as true of his life before the island (and which, indeed, would explain his reason for wanting to be there in the first place).

What some of the movie reviewers more talented than I have said on here about the cinematography and so forth is true; those aspects of the film as as good as any, and make me wonder if this film wouldn't be better watched over a glass of wine or two and the right music on your stereo while the sound on the TV is turned OFF.