A Hologram for the King
— This is sort of an off-kilter film and I should have been prepared by the odd opening scene with Tom Hanks reciting “Once In a Lifetime” lyrics. I didn’t read the novel, but I may now that I’ve seen the film. Hanks’ character is something of an everyman in the global village, a technology salesman in the Willy Loman tradition, dealing with identity and change, struggling to adapt to new and shifting values, figuring out how to find order in chaos, and accept his own obsolescence. The fact that the film is somewhat chaotic itself may help bring this out and, of course, Tom Hanks does everything he can with the role. The images are beautiful and, although I gritted my teeth while watching, thinking it never seemed to get to the heart of things, I felt much better after it was over. Somehow the main characters’ loss of relevance, the country’s loss of manufacturing and political prominence, and the feeling that we may all share a part of our downfall and just need to start over came through loud and clear. It would be interesting to see if age of viewer and praise for film correlate. At my age, I liked it. [DVD]
— This is sort of an off-kilter film and I should have been prepared by the odd opening scene with Tom Hanks reciting “Once In a Lifetime” lyrics. I didn’t read the novel, but I may now that I’ve seen the film. Hanks’ character is something of an everyman in the global village, a technology salesman in the Willy Loman tradition, dealing with identity and change, struggling to adapt to new and shifting values, figuring out how to find order in chaos, and accept his own obsolescence. The fact that the film is somewhat chaotic itself may help bring this out and, of course, Tom Hanks does everything he can with the role. The images are beautiful and, although I gritted my teeth while watching, thinking it never seemed to get to the heart of things, I felt much better after it was over. Somehow the main characters’ loss of relevance, the country’s loss of manufacturing and political prominence, and the feeling that we may all share a part of our downfall and just need to start over came through loud and clear. It would be interesting to see if age of viewer and praise for film correlate. At my age, I liked it. [DVD]
[2016. 98 min. Directed by Tom Tykwer. Starring Tom Hanks, Alexander Black, Sarita Choudhury, and Sidse Babett Knudsen.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/movies/review-a-hologram-for-the-king-is-elevated-by-tom-hankss-portrayal-of-an-american-everyman.html
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