America's Dad Is Lonelier Than Ever

In Tom Hanks' latest movie, the beloved actor plays a man living in isolation from the rest of humanity and making his way through a sometimes-harsh environment, giving the star the opportunity to act opposite an untraditional and unemotive screen partner. The movie is Finch, a sci-fi drama now on Apple TV, but on paper it sounds a lot like Cast Away, the blockbuster survival drama that netted Hanks a Best Actor nomination in 2001. But while Finch is probably the closest Hanks has ever come to reviving that particular and distinctive mid-career triumph, it's not exactly an anomaly in Hanks' filmography, especially when you look at the last two decades. In this late stage, Hanks' all-American everyman has increasingly found himself going it alone, replacing the team efforts of Apollo 13 and Saving Private Ryan, and the romantic devotion of Forrest Gump and You've Got Mail and with stories that deal more explicitly with solitude. At the time of its release, Cast Away felt like a novelty act, albeit one executed with great skill.