FILM
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I SAW THE LIGHT Tom Hiddleston gets out his Stetson to play Hank Williams
Great talent seems so often to go hand in hand with great personal turmoil, and so it went with country star Hank Williams. Quintessential Englishman Tom Hiddleston is a quirky choice to don the Stetson of the ‘Hillbilly Shakespeare’ but it’s a chance for the dapper thesp to l ex his acting muscles. He does so alongside Elizabeth Olsen, who is riveting as Hank’s sexually coni dent, no- nonsense wife Audrey, her own aspirations as a singer providing a rich vein of marital tension. Sadly writer-director Marc Abraham fails to fashion a drama worthy of his stars’ admirable exertions; the smoky, sultry visuals can’t disguise a less than compelling
narrative which unfolds in i ts and starts. We follow Hank from his hasty marriage
and early success through acrimonious partings and alcoholism, to his premature end – with the absence of insight leaving him l oundering like a rebel without a cause. There’s a shortage of interesting supporting players, and when Olsen disappears from the main thread the momentum and much of the i lm’s appeal goes with her. Given his immaculately performed renditions of Williams classics, the i lm is Hiddleston’s by a hair but Olsen very nearly steals it out from under him. (Emma Simmonds) ■ Selected release from Fri 6 May ●●●●●
7 Apr–2 Jun 2016 THE LIST 67