[yasr_overall_rating]
The story of the country-western singer Hank Williams, who in his brief life created one of the greatest bodies of work in American music. The film chronicles his rise to fame and its tragic effect on his health and personal life.
British actor Tom Hiddleston, best known for his role as Loki in “The Avengers” movie franchise, takes on the role of Alabama-born singer/songwriter Hank Williams, who would influence the country music world as much as Elvis influenced rock and roll. Hiddleston is a virtuoso. He gives the role his considerable all, including singing such Hank’s hits as “You’re Cheatin’ Heart,” “Lovesick Blues,” and the title song in a voice that persuasively suggests the real thing. It helps that he’s singing live with a backup band. Hiddleston is not what’s wrong with this movie, but nearly everything else is.
Writer-director Marc Abraham made the horrific decision to focus on Williams as a womanizing, drug addicted, boozer, leaving the creation of his music as an afterthought. Wait, what? You heard me. Instead of discovering something about the exhilaration Williams found in carving out his feelings in song, we get endless scenes of marital discord and drunken self-pity. I went to “I Saw the Light” in hopes of gaining an insight of who Hank Williams was and what inspired his music. I walked away with nothing.
The narrative used to tell the story is weak and disjointed at best. Not enough is ever revealed in any one scene to connect it to the next. It is as if all of Hank’s major life events are happening just off-screen, and we get to see how everyone reacts to them. If I would have had two stopwatches with me, one to record the screen time that had actual dialogue and the other to record the silence when characters stared at each other emoting, I am willing to lay bets that the times would be evenly split. If I want to sit in a room where people stare and emote, I can stay home with my moody teenagers. In addition to the obvious disservice that the film pays to its subject, it also completely fails its cast, who do their absolute best to elevate material that can’t even begin to sustain their commitment and talent.
Elizabeth Olsen (Hank’s first wife Audrey May) gives the character a brilliant guileless belief in her non-existent singing ability and a steely resolve in the face of brutal life events. Sadly, I learned more about her than I did Hank by the end of the movie!
Equally as well played was Hank’s mother Lillie. Cherry Jones took what little story was given to her, and presented a strong as iron survivor to us. Again, as with all the characters in “I Saw the Light,” her character barely gets an outline with no real insight or fleshing out to show us who she was or what made her the way she was. As much as Hank, I wanted to know more about her because of Jones’ performance.
The movie periodically splashes in black and white news reel style footage of interviews done after Hank’s untimely death at 29. Once again, these scenes are odd, misplaced, do not really match with the flow of the movie, and left me wondering why they were there at all.
The extended musical performances showcase Hank Williams’ playlist and Hiddleston’s chops, but the script can’t provide enough assistance for anyone to care who Hank Williams really was.
Your money will be better spent buying a Hank Williams album and staying home with a cold beer to drink while you listen to it.
In theaters April 1st
