Friday night, I watched The Ladykillers, the Coen brothers' loose remake of an earlier movie with the same name. In the film, Tom Hanks portrays a refined Greek classicist who leads a band of eccentric criminals through a woefully mismanaged casino robbery. Dressed the part of a southern gentleman, he sports a white suit and a Colonel Sanders beard throughout most of the film. He has a florid, arcane way of speaking and a brand of eccentric laughter that makes him sound like he is hyperventilating. (These quirks are explained somewhat by the fact that his father was a librarian in a mental institution—an inmate, if you must know.) The movie is quite sly, keeping you on your toes from start to finish, and it's full of the kind of dark humor that can only come from delving into human iniquity. Plus, there's a lot of great gospel music to keep your spirits up between misadventures.

I'm not sure why The Ladykillers didn't catch on, even with the art theater crowd. People may have been mystified by the violence and the rather high body count, but could they have already forgotten the wood chipper of yesteryear? Surely that was much worse. Do I need to remind everyone of the stockinged foot sticking out of the top? Now that's comedy.

At any rate, Tom was terribly funny in this movie. And as I wiped away my tears of laughter, I realized it's been a good fifteen years since any of his roles evoked this kind of reaction. What I want to know is, why? Yes, I understand his decision to do some serious films. He wanted to prove he was an AC-tor (as Jon Lovitz would say). But enough is enough. Doesn't he realize that we all miss Funny Tom Hanks? The Tom Hanks of Bosom Buddies and Turner and Hooch and Big? The Tom Hanks who used to get himself in all sorts of screwball situations and then yell indignantly in that ridiculous and distinctive way? (You can't chew on the car! Not the car!) The Tom Hanks who gave us some of the best moments in Saturday Night Live history? (Hey, you're Tony Randall!) What he's given us instead is war movie after war movie, bland astronauts, and a decidedly UNcomic turn in Philadelphia. Nowadays, he's Serious Tom, and he's about to crumble under the weight of his own gravitas.

With The Ladykillers, Joel and Ethan Coen manage to draw out some of that old glory, that comic genius that won so many hearts and minds the first time around. Still, watching this movie was something of a bittersweet experience. This Tom Hanks—Funny Tom—is probably lost to us forever. I had this feeling of vague melancholy watching it—it reminded me of some old black and white movie I saw long ago, where the hero returns to the heroine after a long separation and much peril (and not the Castle Anthrax kind, either). The overjoyed woman begins making ecstatic plans for their future together, only to pause mid-thought and turn to the man. Seeing the sadness behind his smile, she says quietly, "You're here to say good-bye, aren't you." It's not a question, it's a statement. And a sorrowful one at that.

Good-bye, Funny Tom. We hardly knew ye.

Tags: movies