Themes: Stranded, Opposites Attract, Survival in the Wilderness
Main Cast: Harrison Ford, Anne Heche, David Schwimmer, Jacqueline Obradors, Temuera Morrison
Release Year: 1998
Country: US
Run Time: 101 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Ivan Reitman directed this romantic comedy-adventure that opens in New York where fast-paced magazine associate editor Robin Monroe (Anne Heche) and her boyfriend, Frank (David Schwimmer), leave for a week's vacation on a remote island. They've already been together for three years, so when Frank asks her to marry him, she says yes. For a one-day Tahiti photo shoot, Robin engages the services of South Pacific cargo pilot Quinn Harris (Harrison Ford). Robin and Quinn head off to do the shoot, but a squall forces Quinn to land his DeHavilland Beaver on the beach of a remote, unknown island. With broken landing gear, they're trapped there. Search parties set forth. Robin and Quinn cope with each other. Survival skills surface. Sexual tensions escalate. Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Frank and Quinn's girlfriend, Angelica (Jacqueline Obradors), compare concerns at the hotel bar. Several days later, the search is called off. Quinn and Robin are left to their own devices, including removing pontoons from a convenient Japanese war plane and attempting a take off. Filmed on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
Unfairly, Six Days, Seven Nights got much of its attention because prying minds doubted that Anne Heche could convincingly play the heterosexual lead in a romantic comedy, having just come out as Ellen DeGeneres's girlfriend. That question seems ridiculous in retrospect. Heche and Ford are charming as the stranded duo who fall for each other between bouts of contrived bantering and being chased by pirates. Concessions to silliness aside, the film is more enjoyable than it has any right to be, due in part to director Ivan Reitman's facility for coaxing natural comedy from his stars. The Hawaiian island setting provides good escapism too. Ultimately unsuccessful -- the 75-million-dollar box office was rather small for a summer release starring one of Hollywood's most bankable men -- Six Days, Seven Nights is as fun as it needs to be for a frivolous romp with few ambitions. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Richard Mays - Art Director, David F. Klassen - Supervising Art Director, Terry Norton - Associate Producer, Michael Palmieri - Associate Producer, Michael Chinich - Casting, Bonnie Timmermann - Casting, Sheldon Kahn - Co-producer, Gordon A. Webb - Co-producer, Gloria Gresham - Costume Designer, Michael Neumann - First Assistant Director, Ivan Reitman - Director, Conrad Palmisano - Second Unit Director, Wendy Greene Bricmont - Editor, Sheldon Kahn - Editor, Daniel Goldberg - Executive Producer, Joe Medjuck - Executive Producer, Julie Bergman Sender - Executive Producer, Randy Edelman - Composer (Music Score), J. Michael Riva - Production Designer, Michael Chapman - Cinematographer, Roger Birnbaum - Producer, Wallis Nicita - Producer, Ivan Reitman - Producer, Lauri Gaffin - Set Designer, Patricia Klawonn - Set Designer, Pamela Klamer - Set Designer, Dream Quest Images - Special Effects, Computer Film Co. - Special Effects, Gene S. Cantamessa - Sound/Sound Designer, Doug Coleman - Stunts Coordinator, David Goldberg - Special Effects Supervisor, Michael Browning - Screenwriter, John M. Stephens - Second Unit Director Of Photography
Robin Monroe (Anne Heche), a New York journalist working for Dazzle, a fashion magazine, is invited by her boyfriend Frank (David Schwimmer) to spend a one-week holiday with him on the island paradise of Makatea in the South Pacific. The final leg of their journey, the couple fly to Makatea in a small dilapidated aircraft (DHC-2 Beaver) piloted by middle-aged American Quinn Harris (Ford) and accompanied by his girlfriend, Angelica (Obradors).
Frank has told Robin that they are doing this because he "wants to increase the romance in our relationship."
Alas, romance is postponed as Robin, a workaholic, is called away to Tahiti to supervise a fashion event. She hires Quinn to fly her there, but an unexpected thunderstorm forces him to crash-land them on a deserted island.
Fighting for survival on the island, Quinn and Robin inadvertently become witnesses to modern-day piracy.
The vast majority of the film deals with the adventures (often comic in nature) of Quinn and Robin as they try to evade the pirates and survive in the island's jungle wilderness. In the process, Quinn and Robin fall in love, despite their initial dislike towards one another.
Meanwhile, Angelica and Frank are forging their own relationship.
After a narrow escape, Quinn and Robin eventually succeed in getting their plane airworthy again and they fly back to Makatea, where decisions await them.
Reception
The film received generally mixed reviews. Currently, the film holds a 38 percent rating on rottentomatoes.com, indicating a rotten rating[1]. It received an average review via metacritic, who scores it at 51 out of 100.[2] Yahoo! Movies users give the film a C+.[3] The film narrowly earned enough to surpass its estimated 70 million dollar budget, having pulled in $74,329,966, by October 1998.[4]
