Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 8, 1994 TAG: 9407140052
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He is history - but lots funnier.
In fact, Robert Zemeckis' new film of the acclaimed novel by Winston Groom is a skillful blend of comedy and social commentary, and the movie owes much of its success to Tom Hanks' perfectly balanced performance in the title role.
Forrest Gump tells his own story from a bus stop bench in Savannah, Ga., where his listeners come and go with the passing buses. Offering a box of chocolates - "Mama always said life is like a box of chocolates; You never know what you're going to get" - Forrest recalls a walk through life that begins painfully in leg braces, takes him at top speed downfield as a running back, into the rice paddies of Vietnam, the White House (three times) and onto the deck of a shrimp boat and back home again to Greenbow, Ala.
Through the use of archival material and computer digitalizing, Forrest is there in what looks like real black-and-white footage when history happens: on the campus of the University of Alabama with Gov. George Wallace when the college was forcibly integrated; accepting congratulations from JFK as an All-American football player and later as a recipient of a Congressional Medal of Honor from Lyndon Johnson. Bits of dialogue are dubbed in for historical figures, creating some of the funniest scenes in the movie. But the filmmakers showed admirable restraint with the special effects, which keeps Forrest from becoming cartoonish. Hanks helps keep Forrest believable, despite his quirks and unbelievable luck.
In fact, Forrest always seems to win the lottery of life on a very small bet - except when it comes to love, which he finds most confusing and elusive of all. His childhood love Jenny, played with sensitivity by Robin Wright, is knocked off center early in life and never quite regains her balance - no matter what Forrest tries to do to help. She's the feather that lands at Forrest's feet at the beginning of the movie, is slipped inside his favorite book ("Curious George") and, well, it wouldn't be nice to spoil the ending for you.
Sally Field is good as Forrest's mother, and Gary Sinise ultimately manages to resist the stereotyped dimensions of Lt. Dan, Forrest's platoon leader in Vietnam.
"Forrest Gump" is a wonderful film of a terrific story - one that provides an unusually unclouded, if simplified, view of 40 or so years of America's strange, recent history. We may learn nothing from it, but "Forrest Gump" seems to want to remind us to laugh, in spite of everything.
Forrest Gump *** 1/2
A Paramount Pictures release showing at the Tanglewood Mall. Rated PG-13 violence, semi-nudity and the f-word. 142 minutes.
by CNB