Tom Hanks is the closest thing we have these days
to a Golden Age of Hollywood style movie star. In fact, the actor to whom he is
most often compared is James Stewart, the very quintessence of Golden Age
stardom. The archetypal everyman, the paragon of decency who could be relied
upon to do the right thing. Except in one memorable run of roles where he
couldn’t.
Stewart reinvented himself with a series of Westerns
with Anthony Mann in the Fifties in which he had a memorable run of dark and
troubled characters. From Winchester 73 (1950) to The Man from
Laramie (1955), he played a series of roles that were the very antithesis
of his ‘good neighbour Sam’ typecasting. They are marvellous films which helped
to cement Stewarts reputation as one of the greatest screen actors ever.
The demise of the Western has created a lacuna in Tom
Hanks’s career. I know there are few cowboys more famous than Sheriff Woody in
the Toy Story franchise, but he has missed out on the chance to make a proper
Western until now.
As it happens News of the World shows us a
different aspect of Hanks’ stardom just as Anthony Mann did for James Stewart.
If his character is not as dark and troubled as Stewart was in his westerns, he
is at least haunted by his actions and his past.
Directed memorably by Paul Greengrass, News of the World is the story of Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Hanks) who travels across Texas in 1870 eking out a living by giving public readings of newspapers to remote towns where the locals are eager for news. These are anxious times, the Civil War has just ended, the telegraph has not yet arrived, so in that sense Hanks is a metaphor for progress. In this age of manifest destiny his news, generally about the progress of the railroad, is life or death for these small towns.
Hanks comes across a young German immigrant Johanna (Helena Zengel) whose parents and family have been killed by a Kiowa raiding party. When no one in town will take her in, Hanks realises he will have to do the decent thing and ferry her cross country to find what remains of her extended family. The journey is frequently hazardous but eventually a bond forms between these two who are each harried by what they have seen or done in their past.
For long stretches of the film there is not a lot happening but the characters and performances of Hanks and the excellent Zengel create a companionable mood full of nuance and meaning. You begin to suspect that each might be the other’s salvation. It is only in the final act when the story reveals itself that these moments of nuance resolve into genuinely affecting drama.
This is a very different film from Paul Greengrass’s usual work. The man who gave us the anxious kineticism of the Jason Bourne movies seems perfectly at home with the formalism of the classic Western. He has an eye for a frame and his ciematographer Dariusz Wolski captures it perfectly.
In the midst of all of this there is Hanks, a man who stopped acting a long time ago in favour of simply being. As he does in most of his recent roles, Hanks inhabits the picture with a grace and subtlety that defies description. Like James Stewart he makes it look effortless and, like Stewart, he doesn’t get anything like the credit he deserves.
A word too for newcomer Helena Zengel whose adamantine performance gradually reveals a vulnerable interior without a trace of unearned sentiment, and praise too for a wonderful soaring score from James Newton Howard. Someone else who makes it look too easy and probably won’t get the Oscar he deserves.
In troubled times News of the World is a comfort as well as an inspiration. It reminds us of the blessings and virtues of fresh starts which, hopefully, we will all get to have in a short time.
