Ivan Reitman's comedy-drama is as entertaining as it is undemanding. Harrison Ford and Anne Heche are convincing and funny as crabby airline pilot Quinn Harris and jet-setting fashion magazine editor Robin Monroe, contending with being lost on a Pacific island, and battling with some modern-day pirates. Though their course from mutual dislike, through respect and friendship, to the finishing line of love, is familiar, they run it with style. There are the added pleasures of spectacular scenery, realistic flying sequences, and some nifty cutting between a hula dance performance and a crash landing. (Even David Schwimmer, as Robin's waiting boyfriend with a roving eye, is for once reasonably cast.)
In some respects this is a remake of the 1951 classic The African Queen - both involve a snooty woman and a tough guy thrown together in adversity. But a big difference is that, whereas Bogart and Hepburn were aged 52 and 44 when their movie was made, Ford and Heche were 56 and 29. It seems ironic that in those far off pre-feminist-movement days both movie-makers and audiences could accept older leading ladies; while now female stars over 40 can't find roles, and have to watch older male counterparts romancing women young enough to be their daughters.
But most viewers will ignore such considerations, relax, and simply enjoy this cinematic equivalent of "easy listening" music.
