Tom Hanks has transformed himself from the party dude of Bachelor Party to the romantic lead of Sleepless in Seattle to the war hero of Saving Private Ryan to the six different characters he plays, amusingly, in Cloud Atlas.
With over 80 acting credits to his name, it’s hard to choose the best Tom Hanks titles. Today we take a look at the best Tom Hanks movies…
15. Philadelphia (1993)
No matter the good intentions of everyone involved in this activist drama — to say nothing of its social importance — there’s no denying that Philadelphia isn’t exactly scintillating cinema. The same goes for Hanks’s performance as a lawyer diagnosed with AIDS. To be sure, it’s lovely and full of feeling, but he risks making Andrew Beckett almost too saintly, which made some sense in an era when homosexuality was viewed as a scary “other.” Hanks’s natural likability attacked that bigotry directly, and for that the performance remains incredibly meaningful. But Andrew is more symbol than great character — a significant time-capsule relic slightly diminished by the fortunate evolution of human thinking about sexuality and AIDS.
