The movie Tom Hanks felt was “completely dismissed”
As one of the longtime representative icons of Hollywood, almost any project that Tom Hanks is attached to immediately garners a lot of attention. While his collaborations with the likes of Baz Luhrmann and Wes Anderson understandably get traction in the media, even smaller-scale projects, such as the remake of the Swedish film A Man Called Ove, have drawn audiences in his later years.
Any actor would be happy to have one hit in their filmography, but Hanks has managed to build an intimidatingly illustrious body of work that is simply stacked with successes. From his outing in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan to his culturally significant performance in Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump, Hanks has cemented his legacy as one of the most globally recognised stars of his generation.
While most fans tend to focus on the hits, which, to be fair to them, there are quite a lot of, Hanks will be the first to admit that there have also been projects that did not exactly get the best of receptions when they were first released. Interestingly, the negative criticism does not necessarily translate to poor box office numbers, as proven by the disappointing Dan Brown adaptations.
One particular movie that Hanks felt was unfairly written off when it first came out was the 1996 musical comedy That Thing You Do!, set in the unique cultural landscape of the 1960s that was defined by rock and roll music. It marked Hanks’ debut as a director, which won awards and also was the subject of glowing reviews, but the actor remembered it wasn’t all smooth sailing.
During a conversation with the New Yorker, Hanks reflected on how the perception of a movie changes over the course of time, citing That Thing You Do! as the perfect example of such a critical re-evaluation.
Hanks began: “For me, it happened on a movie that I wrote and directed called That Thing You Do!. I loved making that movie. I loved writing it. I loved being with it. I love all the people in it. When it came out, it was completely dismissed by the first wave of vox populi. It didn’t do great business. It hung around for a while, was viewed as being some sort of odd, kinda quasi-ripoff of nine other different movies and a nice little stroll down memory lane.”
He added: “Now, the same exact publications that dismissed it in their initial review called it ‘Tom Hanks’s cult classic, That Thing You Do!’. So now it’s a cult classic. What was the difference between those two things? The answer is time.”
Hanks clearly has a personal connection with That Thing You Do! because it was his first foray into the challenges of being a director, which is why he even released an extended version of the film that aligned more closely with the vision he had in his head while working on the project.
