Tom Hanks

About

Tom Hanks is a slow-aged Gouda of an actor: smooth, warm, with crystals of something harder underneath that catch you by surprise. He rarely announces what he is doing. He is always doing more than you first notice. Start with Philadelphia. He plays a lawyer facing down a room of prejudice with nothing but his own dignity, and Hanks lets you feel the steel in the warmth, the fear beneath the composure. Forrest Gump is the opposite register: a man of limited understanding moving through decades of American history, and the performance is in how Hanks never winks at the audience, never asks you to feel superior. He just keeps Forrest honest. Cast Away locked him on an island for two hours, and he carried the entire film through silence, beard growth and the small movements of a man learning to be alone. Apollo 13 showed he could disappear into an ensemble without ever disappearing from the screen. The comedies came first. Splash and Big proved he had timing and charm, but the real work started when he stopped being charming about it. Saving Private Ryan, The Terminal, Bridge of Spies: each time Spielberg handed him a script, Hanks brought the same quality, the same refusal to make it easy. You've Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle proved he could carry romance without ever making it soft. The flavour deepens with age. One piece is enough, and you remember it for years.