Review: A Hologram for the King

Eric here, with a review of the new Tom Tykwer film in theaters, A Hologram for the King, an adaptation of the best seller by Dave Eggers. It's the tale of a desperate American businessman near the end of his professional rope, who travels to Saudi Arabia to sell a holographic teleconference system to the king. 

While Tom Hanks isn’t at the peak of his popularity these days, he remains one of the biggest movie stars alive.  So it may feel surprising that this film is being released with very little publicity, dumped rather unceremoniously in “arthouse” cinemas...

My guess is the studio has no confidence in it:  it’s a comedy that keeps you smiling but rarely pushes you to laughter, and there are no big plot mechanics to sell to an audience. This will likely mean it goes unloved out there in the marketplace, which is a shame because A Hologram for the King has a wonderful central performance from Hanks...

Incredibly it's been over 20 years ago since Hanks won his back-to-back Academy Awards. While he’s fallen out of Oscar’s favor, his acting is far superior these days to when they were nominating him.  The last twenty minutes of Captain Phillips is the best acting he’s ever done, and in Bridge of Spies he made decency interesting instead of boring.  In A Hologram for the King, he’s wonderfully assured while taking a seriocomic approach to scenes, always playing his character’s frustration, but knowing when the movie needs to be notched up into something “bigger”.  His instincts for when to go big and when to stay small are unerring, and he gives the film whatever heart it has.

Tykwer doesn't fare quite as well behind the camera.  The picture feels aimless, having neither narrative propulsion or enough jokes to give the film a center.  Shooting in Morocco and Egypt to sub for the unshootable Saudi Arabia, Tykwer does a fine enough job creating a believable Middle Eastern world, developing some surprising characters who defy stereotype, and finding the disorienting feeling of airlessness that comes from emerging cities like Dubai.  But Tykwer’s style here is too easy-going:  on the comedy side, he has no panache; and on the drama side, he doesn’t highlight the big theme of the story (America in the global economy) with any sort of precision or insight. 

It’s in the final half hour of the film where Tykwer’s relaxed style finds its suitable subject.  Hanks’ character meets a Saudi doctor (played by Sarita Choudhury) whom he finds himself surprisingly courting.  From her film debut opposite Denzel Washington in Mississsipi Masala  (1991) through to her role as Mandy Patinkin’s wife on Homeland, Choudhury has proved herself an estimable actress with a magnificent camera face; she deserves bigger showcases. Her rapport with Hanks is delicate and moving

This last portion of the film, where Tykwer settles on a middle-aged man taking the real chance on love in a land where he came to take a chance professionally, feels tender and centered.  There’s no sense throughout the picture that we’ll arrive here, at this story, but it’s the most rewarding part of a movie. Nobody will be telling their friends to rush to the films but fans of Tom Hanks should definitely check it out.

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