Forrest Gump review: life is a box of chocolates (and PTSD)

A simple man takes the scenic route through American history

The set-up is famously straightforward. Forrest, played by Tom Hanks, is a man with a low IQ and a very big heart, raised on his mother’s homespun wisdom, including the immortal line that stupid is as stupid does. He loves one girl, Jenny, from childhood onwards, and she keeps slipping out of his reach.

What makes the film unusual is the route it takes. Forrest drifts through three decades of American history like a man who has wandered on to the wrong film set. As a boy he unwittingly hands a young Elvis Presley some ideas, then goes on to be a football star and a war hero in Vietnam. Along the way the film nods to Watergate, the Apollo era and most of the big moments in between. He never quite understands what he’s part of, and that is the joke, and the point.

Hanks at his peak, with a very good supporting cast

Robert Zemeckis directs, fresh from the Back to the Future films and clearly still keen on putting his hero in the middle of history. Hanks carries the whole thing, and it’s a tricky act: one wrong note and Forrest becomes a caricature. He never hits it. Robin Wright plays Jenny with a restlessness that gives the film its sadness, Sally Field is Forrest’s fiercely protective mother, and Gary Sinise and Mykelti Williamson get the two richest supporting parts, both rooted in Forrest’s time in the army. Michael Conner Humphreys plays the young Forrest.

The chocolates are sweet, but some have hard centres

The digital trickery that drops Forrest into old news footage was the talk of the playground and the pub at the time, and it mostly still works, even if it now feels like a party trick from a very 1994 kind of party. The soundtrack is a jukebox of the era, and pleasingly shameless about it.

What surprised me this time round is how much darker the film is than its reputation. Under the feathers and the chocolates there’s a story about war, about men coming home damaged, and about lives that don’t get the happy montage. The Vietnam scenes and their aftermath are where the film earns its keep. Watching a veteran trying to live with what war has done to him hits rather differently at 55 than it did at 25.

Forrest Gump is sold as a fairy tale, but its best scenes are about the people history chews up and spits out.

That’s also its weak spot. The film can be uncomfortably neat about who gets rewarded and who gets punished, and its view of the 60s counterculture is, let’s say, not neutral. Jenny gets a much harder ride than she deserves. And at 142 minutes, it does meander. If you’ve ever found Hanks a touch too wholesome, this won’t change your mind.

If those scenes stir something closer to home, help is available here: NHS veterans’ mental health services, the charity Combat Stress and Veterans UK all support former service personnel and their families.

What the critics said

Critics have always been more divided than audiences. Empire’s Angie Errigo acknowledged the film’s mush and meandering but still called it among the stand-out audience pleasers, and credited Hanks with the performance that holds it together. That’s broadly where the consensus has settled over the years: sentimental and sometimes simplistic, but very hard to resist.

Where to watch Forrest Gump in the UK

Forrest Gump reached British cinemas in October 1994. It’s currently streaming in the UK on Netflix and Paramount+, so there’s a decent chance you’re already paying for one of them. It runs 142 minutes and carries a 12 certificate, so it’s fine for a family evening, though younger viewers may have questions about the war scenes and Jenny’s storyline.

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Verdict

Forrest Gump is sentimental, overlong and occasionally too pleased with itself, and I still had something in my eye by the end. Hanks is superb, and the war-and-aftermath strand is far tougher than the fridge-magnet quotes suggest. It’s ideal for anyone who hasn’t seen it since the VHS days, or who wants to show the kids what all the fuss was about. Four stars, and yes, I’ll take the hard centres.

Sources

• IMDb – Forrest Gump (1994) title page
• Paramount – Official Forrest Gump film page
• Empire – Forrest Gump review by Angie Errigo

Forrest Gump – 1994 – Netflix, Paramount+ – Cast includes:
Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field
Images from TMDB. Streaming data from JustWatch.