The difference between bad acting and good acting is
fairly obvious to most people. It’s the difference between stiff mimicry and
genuine imitation, or even expression, of emotion. But to distinguish between
good and great acting is something else. There’s a much more subtle
distinction. It comes down not only to how well the actor reads a line of
dialogue or how convincingly he portrays an emotional moment, but to the
choices he makes and the wholesale embodiment of the emotional dips and rises
that the scene demands. I can understand how an actor depicts certain emotions.
I can imagine working myself up to a frenzy for a manic scene or well up with
anger to express rage. I can even imagine pushing myself to a dark place to
show sadness or melancholy. But as Captain Richard Phillips, the cargo ship
captain who was held hostage for several days by Somali pirates in 2009, Tom
Hanks gives us one final scene that is so off-the-charts good, it mesmerizes
and reveals exactly how brilliant his choices were for the first two hours.
