Patrick Stoner ...
welcomes your questions about movies andthe people who make them. Send your
questions to pstoner@whyy.org.
Here's the current question and answer:
Q: Can Tom Hanks really be that nice?
A: Yep.
Here's the thing about Tom: He's so consistently decent to EVERYONE around him, it doesn't really matter whether he has some dark, hidden side to his personality.
He's also got a phenomenal memory for names, faces and details. This is effective for anybody from salesmen to teachers, but it is VERY effective when an international movie star clearly counts you among the people worth remembering.
Picture the effect on my ego when I walked into the room where the interview was scheduled to be held for PHILADELPHIA, with Tom standing off to the side with his mind on something else and his back to me, when he turns around, sees me, and says, "Well, Patrick Stoner, as I live and breathe, I was HOPING I would get to see you today." Now, THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is CHARM.
Actually, his first directorial effort (THAT THING YOU DO) reveals much about his personality, especially since he also wrote it. You probably know the concept: a new, young band in 1964 get "discovered" and begin a quick rise to music stardom. That year is important! For those of us over 40, we can remember a country with little violence, public civility, faith in the institutions that ran our lives, and a sense of hope.
This film is amazing in one respect: nobody in it turns out to be evil. Think about that. What modern film doesn't have some character in it who is truly despicable? Tom Hanks understands that there's evil in the world, but he also understands that most of deal with shades of gray around us most of the time, not black and white.
So, THAT THING YOU DO tells us a number of things that are undoubtedly representative of Tom Hanks' life experience. First, you can succeed -- if you have talent, energy, and perseverence -- WITHOUT sabotaging or betraying others. Secondly, when we DO less than kind things to others (like breaking up with them), we're not motivated by cruelty or indifference, but rather we just go down different paths. Finally, massive success doesn't HAVE to turn you into drug-abusing, people-using, ego-destroying jerks. Basically decent people will usually adjust to the temptations around them and turn out OK.
Essentially, that's just what has happened to Tom Hanks. He's massively successful and enormously popular, but he's grounded in decency. As he said to me before the cameras rolled in the last interview, "They're just waiting for me to do something disgusting. They're so tired of the 'nice guy' image. They will take anything right now to throw a different light on me -- weight gain, not saying hello to the doorman, anything. We can't seem to STAND someone without a dark side in this country."
We just may have to do that in Tom's case.