# Six Days Seven Nights (1998)

### reviewed by
Jamie Peck

SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS Reviewed by Jamie Peck

Rating: *** (out of ****) Touchstone / 1:41 / 1998 / PG-13 (language, innuendo, violence) Cast: Harrison Ford; Anne Heche; David Schwimmer; Jacqueline Obradors; Temuera Morrison; Allison Janney; Douglas Weston; Cliff Curtis; Danny Trejo Director: Ivan Reitman Screenplay: Michael Browning

"Six Days, Seven Nights" is a summer movie that gets the summer movie experience deliciously right, a commendable achievement considering the season thus far has been littered with some pretty uneven fare. Here's a genuinely fun fluff piece that knows it's fluff, recognizes it's fluff and is admittedly proud to be fluff. Of course, the casting of Harrison Ford in the broadly comedic lead role plays a sizeable part in the movie's success; Ford is such a concentrated dramatic actor that it's easy to forget what a funny guy he can be. As his female counterpart, Anne Heche also deserves a big pat on the back for her sweet, goofily charismatic performance. The age difference (Ford's 56, Heche's 29) matters not -- these two click in a charged way that's hard to come by.

The story is a no-brainer -- Ford stars as gruff but loveable island aviator Quinn Harris, while Heche is career-minded but loveable New York magazine editor Robin Monroe. Robin, on a tropical vacation with fiancé Frank (David Schwimmer), gets assigned to supervise an emergency photo shoot in nearby Tahiti, so she reluctantly hires Quinn to fly her there. The plane crashes during a terrible storm, and they immediately find themselves stuck in a deserted paradise with few ideas on getting back to civilization. A series of unpleasant, often hilarious catastrophes leaves little choice but for both members of this unlikely odd couple to fall for each other. Meanwhile, back at the resort, Frank is tempted himself by Quinn's shapely female tagalong (Jacqueline Obradors).

That subplot obviously exists to get us rooting for the Quinn-Robin pairing, and while it makes for a few good laughs early on, it eventually becomes a contrived distraction from the far more engrossing misadventures of Quinn and Robin. And since the film spends most of its time with the castaways, this flaw is only a minor inconvenience. Director Ivan Reitman keeps the pace brisk. At a slim 101 minutes, "Six Days, Seven Nights" never wears out its welcome, where a lesser film could have felt like it was as long as its title. Michael Browning's clever screenplay allows for plenty of notable one-liners (my favorite, taken in context, is "You mean _arrrgh_ pirates?"), and though it essentially boils down to one mishap after another, they're all quite engaging. Even the movie's more "serious" moments are played with a wink.

Heche has been under undeserved fire over whether or not her private life with Ellen DeGeneres would affect the "believability" of "Six Days, Seven Nights"' heterosexual pairing. (So she's a lesbian. So what. Deal with it.) Of course it doesn't, and here, her naysayers are proved wrong in a big way. In fact, her chemistry with Ford is what really makes the film click; these opposites attract with the utmost, endearing electricity. At one point, when the two are discussing the likelihood of romantic interest, Heche asks Ford how old he is. After several wrong guesses ("Forty-five? _Fifty_?"), he whispers his age to her. "You still look good," Heche stammers. "I still _am_ good," Ford replies. She's good too, and together, they make "Six Days, Seven Nights" one memorable ride.

© 1998 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit the New and Improved Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/ "Suggestions, please, for the fourth movie in the series. How about 'Look Who's Talking Back,' in which the audience gets its turn?" -- Roger Ebert on "Look Who's Talking Now"

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