Given that it’s Star Wars month here at SAW, I thought maybe I ought to try and fit the theme a little. And to do that, I decided to chose a romantic comedy starring Han Solo! The best Star Wars character after the Ewoks and Poe Dameron.
Anyway. Six Days Seven Nights is one of those movies that you watch and wonder what someone like Harrison Ford is doing in it. Did he just see it as a nice vacation to a tropical beach complete with a hefty paycheck ($20 million for this movie)? In any case, Ford’s gruff exterior helped elevated this movie from a meh rom-com to a slightly above bland rom-com. I’ve never seen Six Days, Seven Nights before and all I can recall about it is that it received abysmal reviews. A bad RT score rarely puts me off of movies given how many “rotten” movies I absolutely adore, but I can sort of see why Six Days, Seven Nights sits at 38% on the RT meter. I didn’t find it complete trash, just… forgettable trash.
David Schwimmer and Anne Heche play Frank and Robin, two lovers who get engaged on a tropical vacation.They have absolutely zero chemistry but you can see that they’re perfectly compatible together (aka boring). Ford plays Quinn, a womanizing, commitment-phobic pilot who rankles Robin on more than one occasion. But when Robin’s boss (Allison Janney who is enjoyable in just about everything!) asks Robin to hop on over to Tahiti for a quick photo session for her job, Robin pays Quinn to fly her there.
A storm strands them on a deserted island where they have to work together to try and find a way off the island before the elements, or a boat full of murderous pirates, kill them.
Naturally, Robin and Quinn bicker, but they also get to know one another, and sure, being in such a high-pressure, life or death situation is going to push most people together in ways that may never happen in real-life situations. There are parts of the movie that felt incredibly contrived but admittedly, I did laugh a couple of times, mostly because I find Ford to be quite an underrated comedic actor. The movie bogs itself down with the subplot of Frank and Quinn’s girlfriend Angelica bonding over Frank and Robin’s supposed deaths. Angelica is just looking to seduce Frank and Frank really doesn’t put up much of a fight. It felt more like filler than adding anything significant to the plot beyond showing the audience that Frank isn’t the right guy for Robin (obviously!).
Heche and Ford are also lacking in chemistry. There were moments when their banters plays off well but in terms of romantic heat, I felt very little sizzle. There just wasn’t enough there for me to believe that Robin would ditch a guy she had been with for years for an older man she knew for seven days. I don’t know if it’s just the actors or if the characters were simply too one-dimensional to make the romance angle work.
In any case, Six Days, Seven Nights isn’t a movie I would recommend unless you’re a hardcore Harrison Ford lover. It wasn’t pure garbage but it wasn’t anything memorable either. If you want something mindless and fluffy, there are plenty of other romantic comedies to choose from.
