“I Saw the Light” is a biographical motion picture about the life of country music legend Hank Williams. Producer-director-writer Marc Abraham (“Air Force One” 1997) based his work on the 1994 book “Hank Williams: The Biography” by Colin Escott, George Merritt, and William MacEwen. The results are mixed.
On the positive side, actor Tom Hiddleston took on the lead part and did well with it. According to several reports, he captured the essence of Williams’ personality. It is certainly a different role than his most famous one: Loki, the brother of Thor in the Marvel Comic Universe. The English Huddleston has a wide range as an actor. However, the screenplay by Abraham is dry with a “just the facts, mam” feel to it.
Viewers were also shortchanged on Williams’ music. Though Huddleston’s musical performances appeared authentic enough, they were much too brief. We didn’t get enough of his country classics like “Hey Good Lookin’,” “Move it on Over,” “Jambalaya on the Bayou,” “Your Cheating Heart,” “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” and “I Saw the Light.”
This Sony Pictures Classic movie, a flop at the box office, also features a supporting cast that includes Elizabeth Olen, Cherry Jones, Bradley Whitford, Maddie Hasson, Wrenn Schmidt, David Krumholtz, James DuMont, Casey Bond, Jayson Warner Smith, and Josh Pais as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer president Dore Schary.
I Saw the Light (2015)
cinema
My Review
“I Saw the Light” is a biographical motion picture about the life of country music legend Hank Williams. Producer-director-writer Marc Abraham (“Air Force One” 1997) based his work on the 1994 book “Hank Williams: The Biography” by Colin Escott, George Merritt, and William MacEwen. The results are mixed.
On the positive side, actor Tom Hiddleston took on the lead part and did well with it. According to several reports, he captured the essence of Williams’ personality. It is certainly a different role than his most famous one: Loki, the brother of Thor in the Marvel Comic Universe. The English Huddleston has a wide range as an actor. However, the screenplay by Abraham is dry with a “just the facts, mam” feel to it.
Viewers were also shortchanged on Williams’ music. Though Huddleston’s musical performances appeared authentic enough, they were much too brief. We didn’t get enough of his country classics like “Hey Good Lookin’,” “Move it on Over,” “Jambalaya on the Bayou,” “Your Cheating Heart,” “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” and “I Saw the Light.”
This Sony Pictures Classic movie, a flop at the box office, also features a supporting cast that includes Elizabeth Olen, Cherry Jones, Bradley Whitford, Maddie Hasson, Wrenn Schmidt, David Krumholtz, James DuMont, Casey Bond, Jayson Warner Smith, and Josh Pais as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer president Dore Schary.