>>Or did Hanks himself (who had abandoned his family ten years back, after years of drunken abuse) come to realize (if only temporarily) that the human condition isn't all dark and ugly? We'll never know.
I was thinking when I read it, given that Hanks' son referred to him as a ladies' man, this seems like the kind of thing someone might draw after falling for someone. At the end, for the time, it's a little weird that he basically says, "So, my place, baby?" That's really the tone of it. And takes her, basically, to live with him. Yes, she has her own castle. Still.
Notice that she's also implacably pushing for his attention. It does appear Hanks might have, at least for a time, fallen in luvvv. It's almost cute, this one.