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Starring Harrison Ford, Anne Heche, David Schwimmer, Jacqueline Obradors, Tamuera Morrison.
Directed by Ivan Reitman.
Robin Moore (Heche) is assistant editor of the glamour magazine Dazzle. She is joined in her busy lifestyle by boyfriend Frank Martin (Schwimmer), who has arranged the trip of a lifetime for them - 6 days and 7 nights in a South Pacific island near Tahiti. They leave the brutal winter of New York and arrive in paradise, with bright sunshine, gorgeous beaches, deep blue lagoons and non-stop mi-tai's. They land on the island with the help of hard-drinking, aging cargo pilot Quinn Harris (Ford) and his lovely island girl Angelica (Obradors), a hula dancer at the local hotel and Quinn's occasional playmate. On their first night there, Frank gives Robin a massive engagement ring while dancing, signifying the perfection of the moment. Well, of course it couldn't last. Robin's boss phones her the next day and assigns her to a photo shoot on Tahiti. She pleads with Quinn to take her on his plane, and they take off into a fast approaching storm. After being hit by lightning, Quinn crash lands the plane on a unknown, uninhabited island. Meanwhile, Frank and Angelica learn of their loved ones disappearance, and in their distraught state (sort of), when the search and rescue plane cannot find any trace of Quinn's plane, they console one another in a (hilarious) night of passion. While on the island, Robin and Quinn try to find ways to be rescued, encountering crises along the way, including an inept bunch of pirates led by a Maori named Jager (Morrison). And surprise, surprise, these opposites eventually fall in love. While this is essentially a formula film, a romantic comedy of opposites who initially despise one another, but eventually fall in love, overcoming many obstacles along the way, 6 Days, 7 Nights rises above the formula and is delightfully entertaining. While the film has been marketed as an adventure film to get those Harrison Ford fans into the seats, the action is secondary to the interaction between Ford and Heche. And they are the chief reason that this film is so much fun. From the first scene when Robin meets Quinn swearing at his falling-apart plane, the sparks fly. Ford is combative and continually funny as the womanizing, boozing loner who likes his world simple, not complicated by commitment. But it is Heche who makes the film. She brings a girl-next-door attractiveness to the role, and by the end is overwhelmingly charming. It doesn't hurt that Heche runs around in tight shirts and a black bra for much of her island stay. It almost makes you want to be Ellen. For that matter, Ford is often shirtless, and is in mighty fine shape himself. Very quickly into the film, you forget about Heche's sexual preferences, and enjoy chemistry that most on-screen couples cannot hope to match. Except possibly Gibson and Glover. The other couple, Schwimmer and Obradors, are also quite good. Schwimmer especially is quite funny during the middle and the end of the film. The movie borrows from many old classic films, but in a good way. Ford brings to mind Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen, the hard-drinking loner tamed by the independent woman. A heat inducing kiss while rolling on the beach hearkens back to From Here To Eternity and there is plenty of sliding down hills in the mud, reminiscent of Romancing The Stone. The script is well written, with plenty of solid lines, whose effect is maximized by the actors. There are some implausabilities in the plot to be sure, but the plot is secondary. And while Ivan Reitman is known for brainless, not-very-subtle broad comedy, his work here is unobtrusive and nicely paced. For a purely escapist, entertaining couple of hours, 6 Days, 7 Nights is well worth seeing.  
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