Tom Hanks’ Underrated 2021 Film Showcases His Remarkable Acting Skills

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Tom Hanks has been a consistently excellent and popular actor in Hollywood for decades. He’s known for starring in a wide range of successful films, from romantic comedies like Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, to powerful dramas like Forrest Gump and Apollo 13, and even comedies like Big and Toy Story – and he’s always fantastic in every role.

Tom Hanks consistently delivers excellent performances in any type of movie. He’s particularly strong when he’s the only major actor on screen, and this has become a hallmark of his career. A great example of this is the 2021 film Finch, which is a bit of a hidden treasure.

Finch Is An Underrated Movie In Tom Hanks’ Filmography

Finch, starring Tom Hanks, is a lesser-known film available on Apple TV+. It’s set in a future where Earth is almost unlivable, and follows an elderly man who creates a robot to look after his dog after he’s gone.

Tom Hanks stars as Finch and delivers his typically excellent performance. While the movie didn’t receive rave reviews – a common occurrence with many of his strongest films – critics generally liked it. It currently has a 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers specifically highlighting Hanks’ acting, even though the storyline isn’t groundbreaking.

Tom Hanks Is Basically All Alone In Finch

Tom Hanks often delivers powerful performances when he’s the central focus of a film, and Finch is largely built around him. While he shares the screen with a CGI robot named Jeff, voiced by Caleb Landry Jones, and a dog named Goodyear, Hanks is the only human character. Both Jones and the dog deliver fantastic performances, but Hanks truly carries the movie.

Fortunately, Tom Hanks is such a naturally engaging actor that he holds the audience’s attention even when he’s on screen alone. His scenes with both Jeff and Goodyear are heartwarming, but they truly succeed because of Hanks’s talent. Many consider this to be his strongest performance of the 2020s, surpassing even his work in Elvis.

Acting Mostly Alone Is One Of Tom Hanks’ Best Abilities

Tom Hanks is remarkably good at carrying a movie by himself. It’s become a signature skill – he’s done it several times, and always delivers a fantastic performance. These films consistently rank among his very best, and that’s high praise considering his impressive filmography.

Tom Hanks is widely known for his solo performance in the movie Cast Away. Released in 2000 and recently popular again through streaming in 2025, the film stars Hanks as Chuck Noland, a FedEx employee who finds himself stranded on a remote South Pacific island and struggles to survive for years.

Tom Hanks gives an incredible performance in Cast Away, particularly in how he portrays adapting to complete isolation. He skillfully makes the audience care about the volleyball he treats as a companion. Considering his many great roles, Cast Away could very well be Hanks’ finest work.

One of the things I really love about Tom Hanks in The Terminal is how he manages to convey so much even when he’s practically alone. He plays this guy, Viktor Navorski, who gets stranded at JFK airport because his home country erupts in conflict mid-flight. The airport is full of people, of course, but a lot of the movie focuses on Hanks, and he’s often the only one you really see – it’s a surprisingly lonely performance, even in such a busy place.

Watching him navigate life at the airport is captivating, particularly before he knows English. Whether he’s figuring out how to afford food or creating art in a secluded part of the terminal, Tom Hanks delivers a fantastic performance. These scenes really foreshadow his work in the movie Finch.

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2026-03-07 17:48