- Actors: Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Hiddleston, Maddie Hasson, Wrenn Schmidt, Bradley Whitford
- Director: Marc Abraham
- Producers: Marc Abraham, Aaron Gilbert, Brett Ratner, G. Marq Roswell
- Format: Subtitled
- Language: English
- Subtitles: French, Portuguese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Thai, English, Spanish
- Dubbed: French, Portuguese, Thai
- Audio Description: English
- Region: All Regions
- Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
- Rated: R
- Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- Release Date: July 5, 2016
- Digital Copy Expiration Date: December 31, 2019
- Run Time: 124 minutes
Committed
performances are always an asset to a film, but I Saw the Light is solid proof that no actors can recover from a
bad script. The screenplay is the foundation of a film, and I Saw the Light is built upon a sandy beach
in the middle of a storm. Easily one of the least engaging biopics I’ve ever
seen, there is no room to care for the characters, no matter how well they are
played by the actors. Rather than feeling like a story, this movie plays like a
disjointed collection of scenes from the brief country music career of Hank
Williams.
In the age of
the internet, criticism of films begins long before the first screening has
taken place. It often begins with casting decisions (or sooner, as the
announcement of a female Ghostbusters
proved), which is why Nina was dead
in the water once it was announced that Zoe Saldana would play the legendary
singer. There was a similar controversy over the casting of British actor Tom
Hiddleston for the role of country-western icon Hank Williams, but his
performance ended being one of the only things to work in I Saw the Light. They could have just as easily cast an American
actor, but it would have done nothing to improve the problems with the film.
Although I Saw the Light skips over the early
years of Williams’ life and focuses on the brief period of his successful
musical career, it still manages to drag more than countless other musical
biopics that cover far greater periods of time. And despite taking place over a
briefer amount of time, a majority of the movie focuses on elements of the
country singer’s personal life rather than his musical career. To make a bad
situation worse, these elements also happen to be the most over-used and
derivative plot devices of the subgenre, including substance abuse and flagrant
womanizing. We’ve seen this before, and far better nearly every other time.
The film begins
with Williams already at a moderate level of success as an early morning radio
personality, and with his marriage to Audrey (Elizabeth Olsen). While Olsen’s
performance outshines Hiddleston in nearly every scene, Audrey is portrayed as
so selfishly interested in the advancement of her own music career that it
becomes difficult to empathize with her, despite the constant philandering that
Williams does during their marriage. She still comes off far better than his
last wife, Billie Jean Jones, a blandly written role played by Maddie Hasson. Williams
is similarly unsympathetic, showing more of his drunken behavior than the
musical talent that made him an icon. Even when there are scenes of him
performing, they feel like interludes between the episodes marital melodrama
and substance abuse. The screenplay with three writers and at least two major
rewrites doesn’t even show us the advancement of his career, instead just
jumping ahead to the moments he was suddenly more popular.
Even though it
doesn’t take place over a long period of time, this film dragged at two hours.
Skipping over anything remotely interesting, I Saw the Light hits the same notes repeatedly. No matter how good
Hiddleston was able to imitate the twang and swagger of Williams (and as far as
I can tell, he did a decent job), there is nothing remotely enjoyable about
this film. The music ends up feeling somewhat lifeless as directed by Marc
Abraham, who has yet to prove himself as a filmmaker. Despite countless
producing credits, this is only his sophomore film as a director and the first
feature-film writing credit. Writing two TV episode scripts in the 1980s was
hardly experience enough to handle this material.
Clearly
attempting to make up for the lackluster theatrical release, the Blu-ray offers
some exclusive special features in hopes of enticing fans to pay for the
upgrade. There are a handful of deleted scenes and footage of the premiere in Nashville, complete with
a musical performance from Hiddleston. Additional extras include a featurette
discussing the musical icon, a making-of featurette, and a commentary track
with Abraham. The Blu-ray release also comes with a digital copy of the film.
Entertainment Value:
3.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 6/10
Historical
Significance: 3/10
Special Features: 6.5/10
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