A Hologram for the King

Okay, we have your middle aged business man who has hit the wall of obsolescence. He travels to Saudi Arabia to do business so we have your typical American who knows nothing of the customs of the foreign country he is in. We have a typical Hollywood ending where he finds himself and a fulfilling personal life. But I gave it one extra point for Tom Hanks; he's just that good.

Tom Hanks plays a fish-out-of-water businessman in this tale of culture shock, self-doubt and discovery. Set amidst the flat desert plains of Saudi Arabia, Hanks aims to mend his financial struggles by selling an absentee king on a gimmicky hologram-driven teleconferencing solution. Along the way, he encounters no shortage of roadblocks, be they personal, bureaucratic, cultural or medical, and eventually recognizes the experience as a growth opportunity. A Hologram for the King is a conflicted picture, much in the same way our leading man plays a conflicted individual. Nailing down a steady tone seems difficult; the film opens with a loose, cartoonish musical number, then settles into a fast-paced corporate shuffle before cutting that loose and transitioning into a warm-hearted buddy picture and, finally, a contemplative romance. All this in a very trim, quick ninety minutes. Social norms are a steady focus, shining a flashlight on the immense gap between everyday life as an American and as a Saudi, but in the end it feels like those are only superficial, easily brushed aside to make way for the essential happy ending. That climax leaves us with dozens of loose ends, half-heartedly explored threads that are noted and discarded like an inattentive child digging through his toybox. It all feels very loose and light, like we've read a summary but not the entire story. There's a compelling yarn buried somewhere within A Hologram for the King, but we only skim the surface. Interesting and original but quite limited.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

After seeing “A Hologram for the King” the word that stays in my mind is interesting, not an interesting movie but for some interesting visual scenes. Going from a man in possibly a middle age crisis to a story about a fish out of water to a West meets East tale the movie is all over the place. With Tom Hanks, America’s Everyman, that is if Everyman has a Danish female contractor trying to seduce him and an independent Arabian woman doctor becoming involved with him, the role acquires depth even if the scenes with his daughter (Tracey Fairaway) hold the film back as does the brief flashback scenes with (Tom Skerritt) his father. The interesting visual scenes go from Alan (Hanks) and the doctor (Sarita Choudhury) in a swimming scene among coral reefs, wide spans of desert, a vision of what parts of that desert may develop by man plus the hologram(s) in the title. Now if only the movie had spent more time about the holograms it would have been interesting in a better way. There are more scenes such as a high rise beautiful condo growing in a desert land that is being built by exploited foreign workers who offer a brutal way of life. There is also the introduction of Yousef (Alexander Black) who is more or less a cliché as a driver/guide, who is good but really could be eliminated from the picture without a loss except for about 20 minutes making the already short, 98 minutes, movie shorter. “A Hologram for the King” does nothing for Tom Hanks’ career except solidify his likability while Choudhury is very impressive in her role and both in the underwater scenes are a delight as a couple. In spite of the interesting visual scenes, and Tom Hanks, there is no way I can recommend this movie.

Just one incredibly bad movie. Hanks, for years has been one of my favorite actors but good grief he's bad in this movie. Why? I asked my friends, did he ever agree to make such an amateurish, unprofessional flick? It may be the worst movie of his long and great career.