One perk of being one of the biggest movie stars in the world: you begin every film with a head start. A lesser-known actor has to work to establish the character he or she’s playing. So do those who reinvent themselves from role to role; it takes a moment to figure out who they are this time. But a star like Tom Hanks can use familiarity to his advantage. That’s not to say he always plays the same character. Hanks delivered a wonderful, thoroughly realized performance as Mr. Rogers in last year’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood but a history of on-screen decency meant he didn’t have to work as hard as, say, Tom Hardy to pass as the nicest guy in the world. Even when Hanks plays against type — as with his deft turn as a charismatic tech mogul in the otherwise dire thriller The Circle – he draws on past performances, if only to twist them. We see Tom Hanks and we make some assumptions based on past experience.
That’s especially helpful in a film in which we never learn that much about the character he’s playing, like Apple TV+’s Greyhound. Apart from a short but crucial flashback early on, the film plays out entirely over the course of a few tumultuous days in the North Atlantic early in 1942. Hanks plays Ernest Krause, Commander of the Greyhound, a destroyer escorting a convoy of supplies to Liverpool through waters thick with German U-boats. As the film opens, they’re about to leave the relative safety of an area within flying distance of North America for a region known as “The Black Pit,” where no air cover can help them. It won’t be easy and even the men under his command can see the concern growing on Ernst’s face. Before issuing orders he pauses, and though some might read that as indecisiveness, it’s really thoughtfulness. He knows how much hangs in the balance of his every decision, and just what a wrong choice could mean.
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On the other hand, if he did freeze when trying to make hard choices, it wouldn’t be that surprising. In that flashback, set against a Christmas season haunted by Pearl Harbor, we watch Ernst meet Evie (Elisabeth Shue), the woman he loves, and fail in his attempts to persuade her to marry him. She never says the words, but she doesn’t want to be a war widow and knows there’s no small chance he’ll never return from his first command — an assignment he’s long wanted and one that’s arrived just as the U.S. has entered the war. Of course he’s worried too, but like his disappointment at Evie’s refusal, he lets that worry remain unspoken.
From there, the film becomes a study in behavior and a primer on World War II naval combat, observing Ernst as the pressure mounts, the enemy grows more dangerous, and Liverpool starts to look further and further away. Ernst prays before leaving his quarters and before each meal he manages to eat. His men pause to pray with him too, quickly, as one crisis gives way to another. None of them know each other that well — Ernst sometimes gets his men’s names wrong — but they’re forced to trust each other and over the course of the film that trust starts to grow. It’s the kind of bond forged by a leader who knows there’s more to commanding respect than just barking commands. When Ernst calls some of the younger sailors “son,” he clearly means it affectionately, but he also knows they need to hear it.
Tom Hanks, Greyhound
Directed by Aaron Schneider (Get Low) and scripted by Hanks himself, the film adapts The Good Shepherd, a 1955 novel written by C.S. Forrester. The author of The African Queen and the creator of the Napoleonic naval hero Horatio Hornblower, Forrester dwelt on the details of sea life in his fiction, and so does this film. But even if you can’t always follow the Naval terminology, Hanks’ performance fills in the blanks. When Ernst is told that Greyhound has deployed its last full pattern of depth charges, it’s not hard to figure out that’s bad news.
Greyhound had been scheduled to debut in theaters this past May, a release scuttled by COVID-19, sending the film to Apple TV+ instead. It feels like a case of a film finding its level. Greyhound‘s CGI-heavy action scenes work well enough but never build up the intensity needed to suggest the nerve-rattling peril of naval combat. Greyhound‘s brevity doesn’t help in that department, either. Though more films should be unafraid to keep it tight, a real “Is that all there is?” feeling sinks in when it reaches the end of its brisk, 91-minute running time. Anyone making it a night out at the movies might have felt a little unsatisfied. As living room viewing, it’s the sort of movie that plays beautifully on a lazy Sunday afternoon, when the explosions and sound of bending steel matter less than the characters they threaten. (Stephen Graham and Rob Morgan stand out in a fine supporting cast.)
And as a Hanks showcase, it’s the latest in a line of great performances, one in which he makes every detail count, whether it’s suggesting the disappointment behind Ernst’s smile in his scene with Evie or the doubt he only lets overtake his face when no one’s around to see him. Some wars are fought silently and alone.
TV Guide Rating: 3/5
Greyhound premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday, July 10.