Objects of affection

“Cast Away” (2000)

It begins casually enough. “You wouldn’t have a match by any chance, would you?,” Chuck (Tom Hanks) asks Wilson, a volleyball with a face drawn in blood. What follows is a classic onscreen relationship, complete with mutual encouragement, late-night confessions and a heated argument that results in someone getting thrown out of the cave. Their heart-wrenching parting taught moviegoers that even big white balls normally associated with women in bikinis can make you cry.