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Were you pressured to spend Thanksgiving not with a whole passel of siblings, cousins and in-laws but at home isolating with the members of your household? Well, thank you. Whether you are relieved or saddened by the current state, we’re all doing our part and making sacrifices. It will get better.
To do my part, I’m offering you a slate of films that feature an isolated main character. Not to make you sad, but for some commiseration, if you will. Whatever your current situation, you haven’t been accidentally left behind on Mars, so you have to feel good about that!
“127 Hours” – Director Danny Boyle’s riveting depiction of one man’s adventure turned wrong: Mountaineer Aron Ralston (James Franco) is hiking in remote Utah and his arm is pinned by a boulder. He spends five days trapped, facing exposure and dehydration, before confronting his worst-case choice: cut off his own arm or remain trapped and die.
Tom Hanks in “Cast Away” (Twentieth Century Fox photo)
“Cast Away” – Tom Hanks (and a volleyball) star in this survival drama from director Robert Zemeckis. FedEx exec Chuck (Hanks) is washed up on a deserted island when his plane crashes en route to a post in Malaysia. He learns to survive and remains put for years with only his trusty companion Wilson, the aforementioned volleyball.
“Life of Pi” – In a lush sea fantasy by director Ang Lee, Pi, the son of zoo owners, is the sole survivor of a shipwreck – he and a Bengal tiger – spending months adrift on an unforgiving expanse of ocean.
“Locke” – You have to be Tom Hardy to pull this film off. Hardy stars as Ivan Locke, a construction engineer who is on the eve of a superimportant job and who finds out rather unexpectedly that a one-night stand resulted in a child to be born that night. He undertakes a drive to London to be with the mother. How much can change over a long drive? Turns out, a lot.
“The Martian” – Matt Damon stars as astronaut Mark Watney, who is inadvertently left behind at a base camp on Mars when the mission crew must vacate the planet. He doesn’t have enough supplies, he doesn’t have any tools to communicate with Earth. But he’s got jokes and some starter potatoes!
“Wild” – A divorced woman (Reese Witherspoon) decides to run into the wilderness and hike the Pacific Crest Trail despite any significant experience hiking. Ahead of her is a difficult but rewarding journey.
“The Road” – Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee are just a guy and his son facing danger every moment in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. There is no one to trust, no food and safe spaces are hard to come by. Based on the soul-crushingly sad book of the same name by Cormac McCarthy.
“I Am Legend” – Will Smith is a singly unique man – a scientist who is immune to a virus that has wiped out mankind, turning most of the remaining inhabitants into mutants who come out only at night.
© 2020 King Features Synd., Inc.
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