Tom Hanks has blown away his good guy image in his latest film, Road To Perdition, which opens next week. Film Writer Steve Pratt finds him being nice about being nasty.

THE shadowy figure in the heavy overcoat and homburg hat levels a gun at a man's head, squeezes the trigger and, in an instant, blows away the reputation of Tom Hanks as Hollywood's Mr Nice Guy.

The idea of an actor who's won Oscars and acclaim for his portrayals of "ordinary Joes", playing a ruthlessly efficient hit man is as shocking as the thought of Elizabeth Hurley playing a bag lady or James Stewart, with whom Hanks has been often compared, as Attila the Hun.

Since falling in love with a mermaid in Splash, the comedy that announced his arrival as a leading man, Hanks has cemented his place as one of contemporary cinema's most successful stars in a series of roles as ordinary men. Often in extraordinary situations maybe, but men with whom you'd feel comfortable as you would with a friend. They are honest and decent, whether at war (Saving Private Ryan), terminally-ill (Philadelphia), mentally-challenged (Forrest Gump), stranded on a desert island (Castaway) or even in space (Apollo 13).

Nice may seem a back-handed compliment, but that's how Hanks is regarded. So playing a 1930s hired killer in Road To Perdition, British director Sam Mendes' follow-up to the Oscar-laden American Beauty, is a surprise. Just as the posters for Greta Garbo's first non-silent movie shrieked GARBO TALKS!, the poster for Road To Perdition should proclaim HANKS KILLS!

Off-screen, there are no stories of star tantrums or unreasonable demands, merely visible evidence of an actor who works hard and doesn't shirk the duties that accompany stardom. Relaxed and chatty in a London hotel the day after this week's premiere, Hanks does his best to prove that turning nasty isn't really such a big deal. The trouble is, he's very nice about it.

'I think this reputation of being a nice man is because I talk to you folks nicely," he says. "I go about my business. The roles that I play are varied. I don't feel anyone is being nice or good. It comes down to the fact that I'm a pleasant chap in between the time working on the set.

"I thought this was a genre-busting movie. I understood exactly what my character Michael Sullivan was going through as a father and a human being. He thought he could separate what he does for a living away from his family. I didn't think for a moment about any sort of image that I have. The fact is I've been making movies for a long time. There might be a few three-year-old Aborigines who don't know who I am when it comes down to it, but I've been out there for so long that everyone knows my name, for crying out loud. I'm no brand new can of soup.

"I've always felt I can't believe they're asking me to do this. I've fooled them again, the poor saps, paying me to do this. I've always yearned to put on a costume, go out and pretend to be someone else. It's the greatest job in the world and I can't imagine life without that unheralded excitement. It's the most fun you can possibly have."

In the film, Sullivan works as a hit man for the gang run by John Rooney (Paul Newman), who's raised him as his own son. When his work comes into contact with his home life, resulting in the death of his wife and his younger son, Sullivan goes on the run with his surviving 11-year-old son. The role has particular resonances because Hanks has children of his own, including a son, Colin Hanks, who's followed him into the acting profession. He's well placed to draw on his own life to explore the father-son relationships at the core of the movie.

Not that his children are impressed by having one of the most famous men in the world as their dad. "My kids don't know anything else," he explains. "I've been an actor all their lives and they think everybody's dad is an actor. I'm either around a lot or I'm never around. They don't make any value judgement on it because that's like saying what do your kids think of you having brown hair."

He says his own father, who died about ten years ago, was an absolute mystery to him. "I remember distinctly looking at my dad sometimes when he wasn't aware I was looking, when he was driving the car or in the kitchen doing something, and I'd think, 'Who is this guy? What's he thinking right now?'. That kind of thing. I've come to the conclusion my own kids do the same. We all have.

"That's the great universal aspect of this story. We're around our parents and at one point think, 'These are the freakiest, most mysterious people I've ever seen. They don't make any sense. I don't ever want to be like them, but I want to be exactly like them'. It's that great paradox of being a child and being a parent."

As for Colin, Hanks is "very proud of that young man", whose credits already include the Roswell TV series and a leading role in the film Orange County, to be released here in November.

"I'm mostly pleased he has the perseverance in order to stick to it. That's the great difference between those who can and those who can't. A lot of people are very talented but just can't take the long haul that it requires in order to stay in it. Colin has more jobs under his belt at 24 than I did at 28."

In Road To Perdition, Hanks shares much screen time with 13-year-old newcomer Tyler Hoechlin, who plays his son Michael Sullivan Jr. Their relationship was more as fellow actors rather than Hanks trying to bond and rehearse with him before filming began.

"The great strength that he brought, which I recognised as another actor, is that he had this thrust that, if we did a huge amount of analysis, might have been choked right out of him. He loved being in front of the camera," he says. "We didn't sit around and pretend to be frosty father and son off-camera. We just talked as actors who were looking forward to the day's work so when we got there we were doing something we hadn't done before. It was brand new turf.

"In a number of key scenes I didn't feel we were performing a script that had words on a page we'd tried to memorised. It was him talking and me talking. We were very comfortable hanging out with each other and if we hadn't done that, it would have been more of an artifical atmosphere." Inevitably, with Hanks and Mendes both past winners, there's a lot of Oscar buzz around Road To Perdition.

Two-time best actor Hanks takes it all with a pinch of salt. "It's a wonderful horse race, a great play-off season. If we're invited to big parties I'll show up because they serve free sandwiches," he jokes.

* Road To Perdition (15) opens in cinemas in the region on Friday