Besides Denzel Washington and maybe George Clooney, Tom Hanks is America's most reliable reigning movie star.
He doesn't make blockbusters like he used to, but over the last several years he's been so consistently good in good to great movies, that he has become something of a national treasure. That is, of course, with the exception of the far right, who is so threatened by his enduring popularity that they have cast him as an alleged pedophile in an elaborately false conspiracy theory.
In News of the World, a decidedly old fashioned western directed by Paul Greengrass, he has another role that fits him like a glove. A noble Civil War veteran named Captain Kidd (who appears to make a living reading newspapers to the illiterate), who has agreed to return a mysterious missing girl (she has been living with Native Americans, and has adopted their language) to her family at great risk to his own life.
While the movie does nothing to reinvent or revolutionize the genre, it looks great (as does a handsome and tanned Hanks) and it picks up some stream once Hanks and the young girl (strong newcomer Helena Zengel) are in real peril.
Hanks is one of those actors who has bit up so much audience goodwill and trust that he can communicate so much with a look or a single line delivery. It's this gravitas and ability to control his instrument that made him so effective in movies like Captain Phillips, Bridge of Spies, The Post, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (I happen to think Sully is wildly overrated though).
All solid so-called 'dad movies' that nevertheless delivered, in large part due to Hanks.
Like Denzel, he's in his 60s now, and it's unclear what he wants to do that hasn't already done. He's always gravitated towards the heroism of the past -- whether it be the space program or the Cold War or the old West. I'd be curious to see him take on more contemporary subject matter. That said, News of the World isn't devoid of modern overtones, but it wisely doesn't wear its commentary of race on its sleeve.
Curiously, before his Captain Phillips comeback he had fallen out of fashion for trying to stretch a little, first with this divisive Wachowskis' film Cloud Atlas and then with his own ill-fated rom com Larry Crowne. And his last outright bombs have been when he's tried to play a villain (The Circle) or more of a traditional action hero (Inferno). So perhaps I am wrong, and people long to see Hanks as an avatar of the better angels of our nature.
In News of the World, this makes more a relaxing and rewarding viewing experience, even if it's not the most fast-paced, riveting one, It's an interesting departure fore Greengrass. who is best known for his hyperactive, jumpy Jason Bourne film. But he also did direct Hanks in one of his all-time best performances in Captain Phillips, where he was able to show some startling vulnerability, and he is able to do that again here. Which makes it (pretty much) worth the nearly $20 rental price.
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