![]() ![]() Worst-case: The Nazis blow him up before he reaches British shores. ![]() Best-case scenario: He makes it to England in one piece, where he’ll be stranded more than 6,000 miles away from the woman he loves (Elisabeth Shue, the only woman who appears on screen, buoying a pair of ultra-disposable bookend scenes that externalize Krause’s motivation and sink the movie from the start). It’s his first command - though it’s unclear if his officers can smell that on him - and Krause’s only reward for making his way through an invisible maze of U-boats will be a front-row seat at the European theatre. After 80 tense but monotonous minutes of watching Hanks play a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse with a fleet of German subs, it’s hard to say if Commander Krause has steered his Mahan-class Destroyer through a dark night of the soul, or if he’s simply managed to stomach a bad case of seasickness.ĭirected by Aaron Schneider (whose return to the big screen ends the 11-year drought that followed 2009’s “Get Low”), “Greyhound” plunges us into the Battle of the Atlantic as Krause tries to lead a supply convoy through the “Black Pit” during the early days of America’s involvement in the War. The film offers a handful of brief hints at the tortured hero who Forester invented for his book - an ambitious but self-doubting career sailor who feared that he was only promoted because of the war, and worried that he might be unfit to lead an armada of young men who all had more combat experience than he did - but the whole thing is far too preoccupied with staying afloat to profile the guy at the helm in any meaningful way. What could be better than a submarine thriller to help someone explore their own depths? For the first time since “Larry Crowne,” Hanks even took it upon himself to write the screenplay, which makes it all the more baffling that “ Greyhound” is as shallow as a swimming pool.Ī terse and streamlined dad movie that’s shorter than a Sunday afternoon nap and just as exciting, “Greyhound” bobs across the screen like a nuanced character study that’s been entombed in a 2,000-ton iron casket and set adrift over the Atlantic. Forester’s 1955 novel “The Good Shepherd” as prime source material for his next acting vehicle, it’s safe to assume that he was drawn to the role of Ernest Krause because the rattled and insecure WWII Navy Commander would allow him to interrogate the archetype he’s embodied over the second half of his career. ‘Transition’ Review: Gender and Politics Collide in Brave Documentary He can’t do anything about being an icon, but - like most of Hollywood’s brightest stars - it seems that he’d rather be remembered as a performer than figurehead. He steeled a troop of soldiers on a veritable suicide mission in “Saving Private Ryan,” remained stoic as Somali pirates hijacked his container ship in “Captain Phillips,” and landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson without losing a single one of the 155 souls on board in “Sully.” It’s a screen image that has naturally spilled over into real life, as we saw earlier this year when Hanks’ became one of the first major celebrities diagnosed with COVID-19 his fame helped people recognize the reality of the virus, and his composure helped people steel themselves for its imminent arrival on our shores.Īt the same time, much of Hanks’ enduring relevance can be attributed to the eagerness with which he’s complicated, subverted, parodied, and generally played with that persona. ![]() At some point in his long and beloved career, Tom Hanks began to transition from America’s sweetheart to America’s serenity. ![]()
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