Six Days Seven Nights

Directed by Ivan Reitman, Six Days Seven Nights follows Anne Heche’s Robin as she and a grizzled pilot (Harrison Ford’s Quinn) find themselves stranded on a remote island somewhere in the South Pacific. It’s an well-worn premise that’s employed to predominantly watchable (yet undeniably erratic) effect by Reitman, as the filmmaker, working from Michael Browning’s screenplay, delivers a briskly-paced romcom that improves steadily as it progresses – with the movie’s palpably padded-out opening hour suffering from a let’s-get-on-with-it-already sort of vibe that is, at least, allayed by the charming performances. (Heche is fine here, and yet it’s clear throughout that Ford’s completely captivating efforts remain an obvious highlight.) There’s little doubt, then, that Six Days Seven Night‘s growing emphasis on attention-grabbing elements, including a mid-movie appearance by vicious pirates (led by Temuera Morrison’s Jager), paves the way for an entertaining-enough second half, and it doesn’t hurt, certainly, that the romantic bent of the picture’s final stretch fares better than one might’ve initially anticipated – with the final result a somewhat hit-and-miss endeavor that benefits substantially from Ford’s remarkably loose, engaging turn.

**1/2 out of ****