Six Days, Seven Nights

Dir: Ivan Reitman

1998

**

Of all of Ivan Reitman's various films, 1998's Six Days, Seven Nights feels the least Ivan Reitman-like. It's quite exciting, has a lot going for it and I didn't hate it, it is just that it suffers from being overstuffed with unnecessariness. There is a wife-swapping element that doesn't really work, poor old David Schwimmer would have had a huge array of offers during this time, I guess he went with the location over script though, as he isn't given much to go with. Jacqueline Obradors also chose poorly and seems to be lumbered with somewhat of a stereotype. I liked Harrison Ford's performance and character very much, he carries the film on his shoulders quite admirably but I'm afraid to say, it is Anne Heche who ruins the movie for me. She is a great actress but is totally miscast in this role. She is never convincing as a high-powered journalist and is horrible at physical comedy. To be fair on her, she was also given one of the worse scripts that has ever been written. Both her and Ford try very hard to convince the audience there is chemistry between them when the script seems to suggest the opposite. Heche's character is written as spoiled, fickle, brattish and unreasonable throughout, it is never clear what Ford's character sees in her or what she sees in him, apart from his apparent manliness. It's a little too simple for my liking and a little ridiculous too. Everything the couple achieve while shipwrecked is outrageously unrealistic, it is hard to take any of it seriously, even when not taking it particularly seriously. Some may say it is just a bit of fun, a likable romp but I would disagree. I found it to be generally quite irritating and somewhat of a missed opportunity. There aren't an abundance of shipwreck films in the scheme of things, the good ideas they did have were skipped over and overshadowed by nonsense. It could have been an intelligent romantic comedy-thriller but instead it was an unconvincing love-triangle comedy, with poor attempts at slap-stick with a misuse of a TV personality. Six Days, Seven Nights? It felt longer!