Six Days, Seven Nights

Starring: Harrison Ford, Anne Heche
Director: Ivan Reitman
Genre: Adventure
Year: 1998
Rating: 3 / 5

Six Days, Seven Nights delivers everything it claims to, and nothing more, which is an entertaining, if not formulaic, adventure romp featuring ageless action star Harrison Ford and papparazzi favorite Anne Heche. If you are looking for a fresh take on the stranded-on-an-island storyline, do not look here. But if you would like to see two great actors (this is without mentioning supporting actor David Schwimmer, who is surprisingly tolerable in this movie) have boatloads of fun on land and in the water, Six Days, Seven Nights is the movie for you.

Who says that a fifty-six year old man cannot still pull off the romantic leading man roles? Harrison Ford, as crusty pilot Quinn Harris, is out to prove that he can not only still be romantic, but he has not forgotten how to add some action punch either. And for those skeptics in the audience, the man has an uncanny sense of humor that is not showcased in many of his roles, but which is quite evident here. Quinn has been called "crusty," "crafty," "swarmy," and the like in all of the reviews I have read, yet there is one word which has not surfaced, and this is "likeable." Ford's Quinn has the viewers laughing from the onset of the movie, and a lot of that may be due to Ford playing off his usual action-star image. As with all of Ford's roles, you come to love his character and are rooting for him the whole way.

The action starts when Robin Monroe (Anne Heche), on vacation with her good-intentioned fiance Frank Martin (David Schwimmer), is called away from paradise to conduct a photo shoot on a neighboring island. Flown there by Quinn, Robin is eventually caught up in a raging storm, which crashes the plane and strands Quinn and Robin on an island. What follows are pirates, chases, random adventures, and the usual bickering. Oh, and a little romance as well.

What brought attention to this movie, however, was not the panoramic shots, nor the leading man. It was Anne Heche, and more importantly, her very public love affair with the openly gay Ellen Degeneres. Could Heche still be believable as a leading lady? Would the viewer buy the chemistry between herself and Ford? While it is up to each viewer to determine this for himself, let me chirp in with a resounding "Yes, yes!" Heche is incredibly beautiful throughout the movie, even when forced to wade through murky swamps and the like. Yet she is also in possession of a certain amount of spunk, the sort which makes her the ideal sparring partner for Ford's old set-in-his-ways Quinn. She yaps constantly throughout the movie, stumbling about the island while merely trying to help, and you truly come to beliave that she and Ford will win each other over.

Six Days, Seven Nights may not be the best movie of the summer, but its intent is to offer something different for the viewer who is not into special effects and overgrown lizards. At this, the movie most definitely succeeds. It takes the viewer on a raucous joyride through island dangers, stopping only for laughs and a touch of romance. See it for Ford. See it for Heche. See it for the adventure of it all!

Cast:

Harrison Ford..........	Quinn Harris
Anne Heche..........	Robin Monroe
David Schwimmer..........	Frank Martin

Certification: PG for language.
Running Time: 101 minutes.

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