Could Hanks do those things? Could he be Scottie in "Vertigo"? Yes, I think he could. A little while ago I saw a searching interview with him in which he said that claustrophobia was the thing he hunted for in people. It was an uncommon answer, and it reflected a growing up that was neither easy nor comfortable. His parents divorced when he was 5, and Hanks was raised by a roaming dad who never settled down. There's pain in Hanks, and nastier streaks than he has shown yet. The chief problem he faces is his very importance and flaglike integrity. There are people who make movies who don't want to risk Hanks' appeal by having him get anywhere close to unpleasant.

Whereas Stewart -- who was big and important, yet an actor among others -- let that risk come up on him. Take Hanks' role in "Saving Private Ryan," a film made at the very top of Steven Spielberg's cinematic abilities, yet nearly overwhelmed by its sentimental framework and almost oppressive high-mindedness. Everything in the setup of the film and the group of performances makes that pressure plain. The stress is vulgar. Hanks' captain ought to be more elusive. It is a point of his command that he says nothing about his home life. When the crisis comes, and he speaks at last, he is like a parody of Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," digging himself the early grave of absolutely mainstream duty and contentment.

Suppose, instead, if at that moment Hanks' captain had said something like, "Look, at home, I'm a failure. I'm divorced. I had a drinking problem. I can't keep a job. War's the only thing I've ever been good at. So, shall we get on with it?" It seems to me that a whole new context of truth could open up with that, enough to shame the sentimentality away. And that's the crisis that faces Tom Hanks. He's not a kid anymore -- but he keeps a kid's need to be liked, to be popular. Can he stand up and be counted as an ordinary failure? Even in the very uneasy "You've Got Mail," his character virtually abdicates from the tough, businesslike attitudes that have made him.

There are reasons for being hopeful. Hanks himself is very energetic and persevering; I suspect he has it in him to give us a few enchanting scoundrels. I wish he had taken up the earlier challenge and played Richard Nixon (whom he resembles and imitates with high skill). He has also directed a film -- "That Thing You Do!" His character in that movie is a professional debaucher and discarder, though this role too is played ultimately for sentiment. It's hard to know whether that tidy, lively debut promises more.

Again, being Tom Hanks is a full-time job -- nearly presidential -- whereas real actors and artists need intense private lives, as opposed to the nearly constant display of decency and good intentions that have fallen on Spielberg and Hanks. One can easily see how the actor and the director have persuaded themselves into that kind of status. But artists must let that secret and sometimes subversive life grow. In the end, does Hanks see his future as a real actor, a real artist, or as a kind of advertisement for American success and proficiency -- the man in the white, purple and orange suit?

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