Hankswritten.
We don't deserve Tom Hanks...or at least Hollywood doesn't. In a once inspired industry (despite previous problems that still needed to be resolved), now well and truly corrupted by the cruel and callous behaviour of some of those in power who have harassed and abused for countless victims and decades. All until the rise of to the minute social media has given them nowhere to hide and those without one finally...a voice. Even when some of the biggest names in the business have been sullied, Tom Hanks remains a constant beacon of light and truth. The actors actor. The regular working mans Hollywood star. The Bruce Springsteen of movies. The Boss even gave him quite the Academy Award winning intro for his Oscar moment fighting injustice for the LGBT community decades before Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto's 'Dallas Buyers Club' did in 'Philadelphia'. Hanks has been doing this since the early eighties. Even years before this now 32 year old writer was born. And not to make anyone sound old but you know we've all grown up with him too. From the 'Turner and Hooch', 'Big' fun of the eighties, to the 'Captain Phillips' or 'Sully' saviours of the real world he plays tribute to these days.
Hanks has saved a private named Ryan, brought togther a band of brothers, taken on a ship hijacked by Somali pirates and survived and landed a plane in...no ON New York's Hudson River. He's survived on a desert island with nothing but a volleyball, told us life was like a box of chocolates and even caught Leonardo DiCaprio like no one else can. Not to mention he's played both Walt Disney and Pixar's next generation own cowboy with a snake in his boots, Woody. He's done it all and we haven't even mentioned the 'Apollo 13', 'Green Mile' and 'Bridge of Spies' best. Let alone the trilogy of Dan Brown works and partnership of Meg Ryan romantic comedies. Did you just miss the fact that this guys been to space? Is there anything he can't do. Well apparantly not. Because after directing and managing his own band, coaching a womens baseball team featuring Madonna and becoming C.G.I. for a yuletide trip on a train more lavish than the Orient Express every Christmas (not to mention bringing into this world an all acting and rapping lookalike son), Hanks senior has shown he can put pen to paper too. Or is that hands to paper roll and carriage and fingers to keys? As Tom releases his most personal project yet from the desk of his home study...'Uncommon Type'.
And bringing us the best of common people like you like he does in his movies with this pulp fiction, Hanks is just the type for this sort of side-project venture. Not a long-awaited, sought after autobiography which we will hope to amazingly read one day, 'Uncommon Type' is even better. A classic collection of seventeen sweet and at times soberingly somber short stories from the man who has played them all. And here he gives a voice to the rest too in this wide world of wonder. A man dating a younger, more active woman who completely turns his life around...whether he likes it or not. A father driving home for Christmas with more than egg nog, family and present anxiety on his mind. A young actress looking for her big break and her place in the city. A group of friends on an exhibition, trying to populate Mars like Matt Damon's 'Martian'. And a local bowling alley hero bigger than Lebowski amongst so many more weird and wonderful characters and the stories they share. Not to mention some old fashioned newspaper blurbs from 'The Burbs' actor in journalistic character going against the broadsheet beating social media type. These columns and chapters all share something in type too. Not only so they feature in some small or significant way a reference to the greatest tool between the ages of the pen and the laptop in the hallowed typwriter, they were all perfectly wrote on one too. As each story stars with a beautiful black and white portrait of a different type of this magical machine in all its mechanics matching the outstanding, orange Penguin jacket of this instant modern classic looking read. This isn't the Tom Hanks you know. But this is what the readers truly want. A different side of the Hollywood star. And hats off to all his quirky short stories and whimsical writing with so much soul. Ones that like his legacy lasting, legendary roles get to the heart of what's most important in this world, an individuals character. And in the world of entertainment no one has more than Tom. "Hankful". TIM DAVID HARVEY.
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