Like a box of chocolates
Tom Hanks’ roles encompass comedies, thrillers, biographies
As Tom Hanks returns for a third time as Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon in Friday's “Inferno,” this beloved star has hit another pinnacle in his career.
With two best actor Academy Awards, he's enjoying a big push for yet another thanks to Clint Eastwood's “Sully,” a $120 million-plus sleeper hit.
“Inferno,” however, will not be vying for those Oscar voters.
Like “The Da Vinci Code” (2006) and “Angels and Demons” (2009), its Dan Brown-inspired predecessors, this latest thriller slots more as a popcorn rather than prestige picture with Hanks now an amnesia-stricken Langdon loose in Italy.
Still, this sturdy Euro-based franchise demonstrates yet again how formidable Hanks' popularity remains after 35 years on the scene.
Since he first won notice in drag on “Bosom Buddies,” a short lived TV sitcom (1980-'82), Hanks, 60, has transformed from a first-rate, easy-going funny guy to serious actor to national icon.
That's due to Hanks' nearly uncanny ability to make risky, even provocative pictures that resonate in unexpected ways and to continually be a voice of reason when he's speaking as himself. He's been called a 21st century Jimmy Stewart, his roles often reflecting common decency, a willingness to stand up and be counted, and an unwavering desire to do what is right.
His Oscar-worthy recent hits — “Bridge of Spies” (as little-known, real-life hero James Donovan), “Saving Mr. Banks” (as Walt Disney!) and “Captain Phillips” (like Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, another seaworthy true-life hero) — attest to an interest in tackling offbeat subjects whether they be Cold War spies, a visionary fantasist or Somali pirates.
It was Hanks' ground-busting work in the 1990s that marked his passage from celebrity to a kind of all-American folk hero, notably by starring in 1993's “Philadelphia,” one of Hollywood's first and then quite controversial AIDS dramas.
Yet Hanks's formidable legacy includes the feelgood fantasy-like “Forrest Gump,” a fact-based space thriller (“Apollo 13”) and, with “Saving Private Ryan,” nothing less than a salute to the Greatest Generation, who fought WWII and then went home and never spoke about it.
And that's just his threedimensional characters — next up, Hanks again voices Woody for “Toy Story 4,” coming in 2018.