The art of playing the everyman has become very underrated amongst audiences nowadays, and no one does it quite as well as Mr Hanks. I'll get to who I feel is his female, British equivalent in my next post (hint: she starred with him in 'Saving Mr Banks'), but for the time-being let's look at the career highlights of Mr Hanks.
5. Forrest Gump
The film and this performance is certainly a divisive one, and I completely understand that a lot of one's appreciation for Hank's depiction of good ol' Forrest, depends on how one takes to the feel-good, sentimental approach of Robert Zemeckis to the American underdog story. If you don't like the film, you won't like his performance. Well I'll be the first to admit it's flawed in many regards, but I love it warts and all. It's an engaging and clever spin on the 'inspirational hero' story as our protagonist, Forrest, achieves a great many things but is always driven not by pursuit of fame, fortune but the love of a girl who's really not all that great (I love Robin Wright, but the writing of her character Jenny in this film has some serious flaws). Hanks plays Forrest in a fairly one-note fashion as a constant throughout the film, our none-too-bright but in many regards, incredibly competent (ping pong, the Army, running) protagonist. Hanks' character creation of Gump's always slightly slow delivery, but constant optimism and kindness, is impressive, and he carries the film extremely well as the likable hero and whenever a scene asks more of him, in classic Hanks fashion he delivers the emotions perfectly. Take for example, the third clip I enclose below where he finds out he has a son, around the 3 minute mark. In a few seconds and a simple delivery of a line, he never fails to make my heart hurt for his kind, selfless hope for his son to not be 'dumb' like him. In my opinion, very much a deserved Oscar win.
4. Big
3. Bridge of Spies
Hanks' role as lawyer James Donovan is more of a reactive than active sort to the changing environment and situations around him, here being strung into defending an accused Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance). Hanks faces a hurdle in his outset in that his co-star Rylance, who he shares some big scenes with, gives a powerful and incredibly entertaining performance that could've easily overshadowed many a lesser performance. Indeed, first time I watched the film, I was so absorbed by Rylance's sublime work, I almost neglected Hanks completely, a very dangerous thing to do. It's easy to forget against his Oscar-winning work, that a great deal of the effectiveness of Rylance's scenes rely a lot on Hanks as well. Take the below three scenes for example; Rylance is respectively the comical, ominous, and inspirational highlight of them, but it's Hanks silent reactions that really help sell the humour of the joke, evoke the seriousness of the situation, and pull at the audience's heartstrings. Plus the two have a great chemistry that's always believable, there's a certain charming awkwardness because they're from different countries and backgrounds, but develop a burgeoning friendship that makes the film end on a resonantly powerful note.
Hanks gives one of the best old-style leading turns I've seen in ages, that of an everyman in extraordinary situations that's unfortunately so rare nowadays. Every hero in the modern age of cinema apparently has to have some traumatic backstory, dark past, dark side; the writing behind Donovan, and Hanks' subsequent performance, paint him as 'just an insurance lawyer' who happens to be particularly affable and charming, all right up Hanks' lane. Hanks brings the right sort of Jimmy Stewart as Mr Smith Goes to Washington passion in his court scenes, and scenes where he goes against the indignations of the American public. He's effortlessly compelling in showing the viewer where this desire for justice is coming from, but also his reservations and concern for his family. When Donovan has to go to East Berlin to negotiate the swap for Rudolf Abel and two American citizens, the film's focus shifts to Hanks, and he does not disappoint. He continues his charismatic grasp of the screen while also showing his character's vulnerable side as a fish out of water, and his horrors at the atrocities he witnesses. His final reaction shots to a friend's departure, and vindication of his actions, is an encapsulation of how great his whole performance is. The more I write about this performance the more I realize I kind of love it, it's a very underrated performance, and is so crucial to the effectiveness with which Bridge of Spies utilizes old-school tropes to hit you in the feels.
2. Captain Phillips (warning: spoilers will be revealed as this'll be quite a thorough analysis)
The oddest Oscar snub of 2013 was for Hanks in this portrayal of the real-life titular character of this thrilling (if by some accounts fictionalized) Paul Greengrass film. The film did extremely well at the Oscars in the technical categories, Best Picture, and even nabbed a supporting nod for Barkhad Abdi for Best Supporting Actor. Hanks, who had been nominated for pretty much every acting award for this performance, was left out in the cold. Now to be fair that was a strong year. Christian Bale and Bruce Dern were very good, Chiwetel Ejiofor was terrific, and Matthew McConaghey and Leonardo DiCaprio gave two of the best performances of this past decade. It's a shame though that Hanks' brilliant work couldn't find a spot as this role presented itself as one of his best roles in ages.
Hanks' portrayal of Captain Phillips is an incredibly subdued performance. He has a slight Bostonian accent, which is a nice little touch (accents have never really been Hanks' strong suits, nor does it matter, but he does it well here). A a man running the ship Hanks is not some great captain, nor a man of the sea, no Hanks as per usual plays Phillips as just an average guy. Like in Bridge of Spies, and Cast Away, Hanks' character is placed into danger. This time round it's his ship going through dangerous pirate territory which causes an invasion of the ship, and his portrayal of Phillips' reactions to the intruders is always realistic, with a certain command in trying to calm everyone onboard, but also a growing anxiety.
Once Hanks starts interacting face-to-face with the pirates, is where some of the best moments of the film start to come into play. I'm no fan of Paul Greengrass' camera in some of these scenes as I find his whole quick-cutting, one-camera shots tricks grow a bit tired after a while, and I might have gone off the film altogether were it not for the fantastic acting display. The supporting pirates, played by Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, and Mahat M. Ali are all very good too, but the highlights and focus are on Hanks and co-star Abdi, who plays the pirate leader Muse. Abdi's cool and incisive approach to taking over the ship, stating that he's 'the Captain now', and telling Phillips to play no games with him, is matched perfectly by Hanks' desperate and emotional, but still calm and assertive ways of dealing with the intruders, putting on a very hapless front while negotiating with the pirates, while suggesting ways in which he is trying to get them off his ship.
Soon the Navy SEALS come round and the four pirates take Hanks hostage on a lifeboat to negotiate demands. Some have considered these lifeboat scenes to be the slowest parts of the film, I actually find them some of the strongest scenes, as Abdi's performance gradually grows with such intensity and desperation that makes the villain strangely sympathetic, and Hanks' performance grows with such fear and increasingly volatile emotions. Hanks even has a few quieter moments where he tries to get Muse to think about what other life he could have chosen besides pirateering, and is quite moving in the gradual sympathy he feels towards the pirates.
Well things come to a bloody end (another fantastic scene for Hanks), Phillips is saved and treated, then we come to Hanks' big scene where he finally takes the whole spotlight. One note about it: they got in a real-life Hospital Corpsman (Danielle Albert) to come perform this scene with Hanks, I really like that little touch as apparently her methodical but comforting approach to treating Phillips is how it really goes on in real-life. I've written a bit about it before, but just to repeat myself, I think it's the finest bit of acting I've ever seen in his career. The shock and traumatized state of Phillips, and the moving portrayal of a man who having had blood shed upon him will never feel quite the same again, is a powerful end to a flawed but at its height, brilliant, film, and a flawless performance, that generously knows when to hold back, and when to let loose.
1. Cast Away (warning: spoilers will be revealed as this'll be quite a thorough analysis)
I go between this performance and his Captain Philips portrayal as my favourite of Hanks, I've seen this more recently so it's fresher in my mind, but I could easily switch back to Captain Philips at any time. One thing that makes this performance stand out to me most is how much the film completely hinges on Hanks' performance. More so than Philips and Bridge of Spies where he had great co-stars and in the case of the latter, a great director (I like Paul Greengrass a lot but his direction of Philips and the cinematography are some of my reservations with that film). More so than Big and Forrest Gump, because in this film he is a one-man showcase for a lot of it. The film is entitled Cast Away and delivers what it promises: Tom Hanks as a man named Chuck Noland, a FedEx employee who after a plane crash finds himself cast away, stranded and alone on a deserted island. It's an excellent film, with Robert Zemeckis proving as he would once again prove in Flight a decade later that he can make a vehicular disaster onscreen a truly terrifying experience, and a wonderful score, but Hanks is without the influence of both of these through large stretches of the film. The film is constructed in a very unique fashion with its bookends, which I'll discuss a bit later, but for large portions this film is all just Hanks on an island.
And this is an acting showcase which had so much potential to become completely ineffective. Hanks' one-man showcase is potentially limited like how Damon's Mark Watney was limited by a sprawling ensemble focus and breezy tone, how Tom Hardy's Locke was limited by a performance confined to a car from shoulders up, how Philip Baker Hall's Nixon was limited by the fact he was in one room on his own the whole time. Hanks' performance is initially limited in a different fashion in that once again, Chuck Noland's an ordinary chap, a bit of a workaholic, he loves his partner (Helen Hunt), loves his job as a FedEx employee, is always concerned about being on time. This is for about the first 30 minutes or so of the film before he's caught in a terrifying plane crash. After the crash, as I mentioned, Hanks is once again limited in that it becomes an almost silent performance for a while. Hanks is quietly effective in the first few scenes on the island where he scrounges around for food and water and looks for help, and is particularly effective in the scenes where he finds a dead body of a pilot (his reactions to looking through the pilot's wallet is particularly heartbreaking), and nearly drowns from trying to escape the island.
As the film progresses, Chuck becomes increasingly exasperated and angered, and in turn his performance becomes shoutier, and more externalized, the scene where he so furiously tosses away his equipment while failing to make a fire works extremely well, and makes his subsequent celebration at having created fire an extremely effective feel-good moment. He also has some excruciating scenes in which he has to remove a rotten tooth, Hanks physically delivers so well in this scene and makes you feel his pain and fear so viscreally.
Chuck soon strikes up a realtionship of sorts with one of the packages he's found lying on the shores of the island, a volleyball who he bestows the name of 'Wilson' upon (because, you know, its brand is Wilson). Hanks would make Ralph Fiennes in In Bruges proud by his ability to strike up a fascinating dynamic with an inanimate fucking object.
He's helped in turn by the well-rounded portrayal of Wilson as an island survivor by the volleyball, who received a substantial share of the film's profits after taking into account inflation, unfortuantely nowadays there's not much call for biopics in his line of sport, this really is his career highlight, unless somebody puts a bit of a spin on his downwards career trajectory, I'm glad he had a ball doing this film, now I should really stop with these ball puns now though I'm on a bit of a roll. I should stop being so lame really because in all honesty, Hanks' performance could've reached a bum note here, but instead he utilizes his relationship with Wilson to show a figure he can talk to, argue with, have compassion for and anger towards. He creates a genuinely moving friendship that reaches two extremely pivotal, heartbreaking moments where Hanks thinks he has lost Wilson, and a point where he actually has.
The escape from the island scenes are where Hanks performance and Zemeckis' direction finally come hand in hand together again, and were the film to conclude at the end of his rescue scene I would be entirely fine with it, as Hank's performance is already remarkable enough at this point. Well, there's more. Many state that the final scenes of Hanks' performance, where his Chuck is once again back in the real world, and adjusting to what's changed, are the best scenes of his performance. I'd have to agree. The scenes where he tearfully apologizes to a friend for not being at his friend's wife's funeral, where he finds objects and food that remind him of his time on the island, his silently tearjerking moment of meeting with his wife's husband, his the teary-eyed, rainy reunion with his wife and him letting go of her, his rumination about contemplations of suicide and what he learned about himself on the island, are all nailed brilliantly. Hanks ends his performance on a perfect note with Chuck Noland at literal crossroads as to where his future lies; striking up a charming rapport with a fellow driver, and having a cheeky, deep and meaningful final glance to a very special someone with his final reaction shot, which I must say seems to be a bit of a Hanks speciality.
P.S. Hanks has a very talented son Colin, who's also an actor, and who I've liked in pretty much everything of the very little I've seen him in. Don't they look a spitting image of one another?
6. Apollo 13
7. Saving Private Ryan
8. The Ladykillers
9. Catch Me If You Can
10. The Terminal
(I should note I've never cared much for Road to Perdition, I haven't seen it in a long time though so a re-watch could bump Hanks' performance up into the list, though I'm not really in the mood to do so. I would recommend it to anyone who loves beautiful looking films though as it really is stunning to look at, however I found it terribly hollow. But that's just me.)
Shame you don't like Road to Perdition, though I can see why you might find it hollow.
ReplyDeleteQuite looking forward to your ranking of my favorite living actress.
Mendes might just not work for me in general, even in my favourite film of his, Skyfall, I thought his direction was just okay.
Delete