Moviegoing audiences have been getting many musical biopics over the last few years. There was RAY which told the the story of Ray Charles, WALK THE LINE about Johnny Cash, and STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON which chronicled NWA. While some of these films have been lauded by both the press and the public, a scant few have taken home a little golden statue. With the upcoming colossal tsunami of tent-pole films to hit before August, one begins to wonder if Hollywood has run out of fresh ideas or just hit upon a new genre of storytelling. With that entire idea in mind, here comes the latest which showcases the life of the country pioneer who was Hank Williams, titled I SAW THE LIGHT.
The film opens with Hank (Tom Hiddleston) on stage, hat on head and a single spotlight from above. It is smoky in brown hues. He croons with a soul overflowing with melancholy. The tune is “Cold, Cold Heart.” It is a simple but highly effective moment that shows much promise. One begins to feel like this may be a film along the lines of The Beatles’ HARD DAY’S NIGHT. Then the story opens to the last decade or so of Hank’s life. The first scene is Hank marrying Audrey (Elizabeth Olsen) by a justice of the peace. She is recently divorced and has a daughter. The judge pronounces them “husband and wife” (not “man and wife” like it was actually done in the 1940s). The two are off to a performance where Lillie Williams (Cherry Jones) is watching over her talented little boy and wants no one dragging him down on the long coattails. Lillie sees Audrey as that two ton weight, and there is almost an instant friction between these two women.
Hank has but one goal – to be on The Grand Ole Opry. It will cement his career as a country star. He has an early morning show on a local radio station, but Hank wants more… a national audience. That success trail runs through a bunch of different men. The path starts with songwriter Fred Rose (Bradley Whitford), who tries to put up a barrier to Hank because he’s seen many come before, but the young man is insistent. The movie shows Hank singing at different venues and fairs but one can tell that the toll of touring and the stress of letting the band go in favor of studio musicians weighs hard on the frail heart of the superstar. The film needed more scenes of Hank playing and not so much of Hank dealing with all the drama. There is a bunch of joy in those sad songs.
At times, one begins to believe that what is being projected in front of them is a country version of a Nicholas Sparks novel and not a motion picture of one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. The promise of the first scene becomes more of a standard storytelling frame. Tom Hiddleston is best known as playing Loki in Marvel’s THE AVENGERS and THOR flicks, but here he proves that he can totally cloak himself in a character. There was never a moment in the entire work that the audience doubts that this man was not the embodiment of the actual legend. He is pitch-perfect on the songs and on temperament. Simply put, Tom Hiddleston is (for the running time) Hank Williams.
While Elizabeth Olsen is usually the actress to top, in I SAW THE LIGHT she was not on her ‘A’ game. She is supposed to be some kind of money-grubbing femme fatale, but it comes across more as a girl playing a woman’s game. There is no diabolical spark behind the fire of her eyes. The entire reading feels more along the lines of a decent high school kid in a high school play rather than a major actress with a major role…. but she could not have been shot more beautifully. On the other hand, Cherry Jones is just perfect as Lillie Williams. She is headstrong and strong-willed in making sure her son becomes the biggest star in the world. If there ever was a poster for the ‘stage mother’ archetype, Cherry Jones could fill that bill. One gets the feeling that all Hank is trying to do is please his momma.
While the costumes are stunning and the cars super cool, there are many moments that are not true to the time. There is a shroud of political correctness that is not honest to the era, especially in the Deep South. It is a glorified depiction of a world that never existed back then. Writer/director Marc Abraham was working on a small budget and that can be forgiven. He didn’t have $100 million to make every detail 100% accurate. But as the writer and the director, he should have never put a 21st century shine on a post-WWII/pre-Elvis world. Everyone knows it is a film, but it is not an honest one. To sum it all up, I SAW THE LIGHT is a somewhat mediocre film with a massive performance carrying it. In my listing of best performances by an actor, Tom Hiddleston goes right under Ryan Reynolds as DEADPOOL. No one knows if they will still be there by year’s end, but stranger things have happened. Putting it in the most basic of terms, this Hank Williams story needed more singing and less talking.
