Like the chocolates that its titular hero offers strangers at a bus stop, this story of a simple man's journey through life and the turbulent events of post-war America is both dark and sweet, with a center that is soft but also rich and surprising. Gump (Hanks) is a young Alabaman of slight intelligence who nevertheless has a strong sense of self that sees him through being taunted by bullies, playing college football, the army, a business, and -- amazingly -- many of the touchstone events of the Sixties and Seventies. The story's extraordinary conceit is that this man was there whenever something big happened to America, his story being our story as a nation. Much of the film is about the country's pain over having its innocence ripped away in that era and how, in Forrest Gump, the child lived on. Sentiment flows freely but not cheaply, because Forrest is not portrayed as a simple man and Hanks gives a mesmerizing performance. The film shows assassinations, addiction, and Vietnam in all their violence and trauma, yet still affirms human emotion and a potential for healing.
D: Robert Zemeckis; with Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field.