Six Days, Seven Nights Synopsis: Robin Monroe, a New York magazine editor, and the gruff pilot Quinn Harris must put aside their mutual dislike if they are to survive after crash landing on a deserted South Seas island.

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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 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 elevate 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 they’re perfectly compatible (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 will push most people together in ways that may never happen in real-life situations. Some parts of the movie felt incredibly contrived, but admittedly, I laughed a couple of times, mostly because I find Ford to be a pretty 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 anything significant to the plot, beyond showing the audience that Frank isn’t the right guy for Robin (obviously!).

Heche and Ford also lack chemistry. There were moments when their banters played off well, but I felt very little sizzle in terms of romantic heat. There just wasn’t enough there to believe that Robin would ditch a guy she had been with for years for an older man she had known 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.

Watched: 06/21/2021
Notable Song: Is This Love by Bob Marley