1. Cast Away (2000)
If you thought Gary in The Last American Virgin got a raw deal, he's got nothing on Tom Hanks' shipwrecked FedEx employee Chuck Noland in Robert Zemeckis' excellent
Cast Away. At the time of his disappearance in 1995, Chuck is in a relationship with Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt), and though they are committed to get married, Chuck's hectic work schedule has so far prevented that. When Chuck is finally rescued four years later and returns home, he realises that he has been long presumed dead, and Kelly has married another man, with whom she has had a daughter. The two talk alone, professing their love for one another, but of course, it is impossible for them to be together now that Kelly has moved on and started a family with someone else. Chuck takes their shared car and drives away. It's a brutal ending because there's no wrong and there's no right; it's steeped in tremendous moral ambiguity where either resolution - a) Kelly staying with her husband or b) Kelly returning to Chuck - would be understandable and yet absolutely wrenching at the same time. Hanks hammers it home with a sublime, Oscar-nominated performance, but thankfully, the ending is more hopeful about Chuck's future than forlorn. Are there any great films like this we missed? Let us know in the comments below.