And if Hanks was so smart throughout the movie, why did he go back to the Aunt's house in the end?
you answered your own quesiton in part. the only reason jude law's character was chasing hanks and kid was because
the hit had been put out by nitti to appease paul newman's character. with the newman dead, his (newman's) son dead,
and with nitti ok'ing the hit on newman's son by hanks, what is there for hanks to worry about ? why shouldn't hank believe
that nitti would reel in his assassin ?
as far as i could tell, nitti thought that all remnants from that mess should be eliminated, hence the killing of hanks (although
we are led to beleive the boy lived against nitti's original instinct to snuff out both father and son), or jude law acted as a lone
sociopathic wolf to avenge his earlier humiliations.