Robert Zemeckis’s comedy drama is rereleased for its 30th anniversary, starring Tom Hanks as its savant-patriot hero goof from the fictional town of Greenbow, Alabama. It is adapted from Winston Groom’s bestseller from the Reaganite 80s, but the movie arrived for the presidency of Bill Clinton, who had his own Gump body-language, and it happens to contain a complimentary remark about his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas.
And every time I watch it, I swear that this entirely ridiculous, hokey-sentimental and politically naive fantasy isn’t going to get under my skin but every time it does. It is superbly paced, expertly acted, it looks great, and there is a kind of needling, sleeve-tugging genius in Hanks’ performance, despite that outrageous Jimmy-Stewart-with-a-head-injury voice. Each move and mannerism pops like bubblegum and his athletic dive from the deck of his shrimping boat when he hears his momma is sick is a thing of wonder.
