Tom Hanks' 10 Best Performances
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8. Charlie Wilson's War
Mike Nichols' rollicking swan song makes Hanks and Julia Roberts the unlikely benefactors of covert U.S. operations against commies in Afghanistan. Philip Seymour Hoffman stole the show, but there was plenty of fun to go around.
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7. Bridge of Spies
Spielberg's follow-up to Lincoln was every bit as fascinated with procedural detail. But where the earlier film is commanded by a single can't-watch-anything-else presidential performance, Hanks and the captivating Mark Rylance share the screen to wonderful effect.
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10. Road to Perdition
After blowing minds with his debut American Beauty, Sam Mendes played it safe in this excessively polished but seductive gangster film, in which Hanks served as a top advisor to Paul Newman's Irish mob boss.
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6. Catch Me If You Can
Hanks scores a big one here, holding our attention in the face of a protagonist — Leonardo DiCaprio's high-flying con man — whose exploits threaten to make all those around him look like dullards.
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9. Sully
THR's Todd McCarthy calls the film a "vigorous and involving salute to professionalism and being good at your job," which "vividly portrays the physical realities and human elements in the dramatic safe landing of a crippled US Airways jet on the Hudson River".
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4. Big
Hanks' endearing qualities carried him through eight starring roles before he got a vehicle worthy of him — this charmer about a kid who magically acquires an adult's body.
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3. Apollo 13
Ron Howard's best film locked Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton together in a crippled spaceship bound for the moon. The true-life nail biter that ensued was as claustrophobic and tense as The Right Stuff was elating and expansive.
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2. Saving Private Ryan
Few, if any, pictures have made as fine use of Hanks' place in the American psyche as Spielberg's universally acclaimed war film. But it doesn't take a radical revisionist to feel qualms about the "greatest generation" glorification Ryan ushered in.
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1. Captain Phillips
Hanks matches the Brit here for steely, desperate action, providing an excellent viewer surrogate while Paul Greengrass ensures we understand his tormentors too well to demonize them.
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5. Cast Away
You forget there was a "before" and "after" in Cast Away, remembering the surprisingly long chunk of the film Hanks carries all by himself (imaginary friend or none) on that lonely island.
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