I have long held the belief that a biopic is only as great as its lead. If the lead performance in a biopic fails, so falls the rest of the film. Here is a biopic whose lead performer deserves some kind of medal for overcoming the pile of garbage that has been laid out before him. Tom Hiddleston is amazing in I Saw The Light, a film chronicling the life of the undeniable king of country music, Hank Williams. The film, directed and written by Marc Abraham (whose previous film, Flash Of Genius, is a surprisingly fascinating look at the man who invented the windshield wiper), cannot even come close to equaling Hiddleston. This is a dry, dull, lackluster, stilted, incredibly cheap production that only manages to get more frustrating as it moves along. By the last half an hour, I was questioning whether or not the film was even going to have an ending.
The film attempts to chronicle the rise and fall of Williams, from the days in which he first started to make it big to his alcoholism to his marriage to Audrey (Elizabeth Olsen,) the wife who insists that she be part of his persona even as their marriage falls apart. All of these elements could potentially make an interesting biopic and Williams is a towering industry figure. However, Abraham makes all of this feel so disjointed, especially when the usually reliable Bradley Whitford shows up as Hank's friend and way into the record industry, Fred Rose. Rose's relationship with Williams could be an interesting one to explore but here, he's used as the exposition guy. Most of the time, Rose is shot in a documentary-style format in which he explains things that the film should have been showing.
Olsen is actually quite good as Audrey, but that character is so unpleasant and her marriage to Hank so uninteresting that when I started to realize it was going to take up 75% of the film, I felt the urge to check how much more of the film there was left. There's something to explore in the show business wife who ultimately just ends up using Hank to get in with the in crowd but Abraham backs down every time potential rears its head.
The only times the film really comes alive is when Hiddleston performs as Williams. It's astonishing to see how Hiddleston manages to sound almost identical to Williams, a man with whom distinction and extreme energy was just part of singing. Dedicated as he is, however, Hiddleston cannot save this film. There is so much fascinating stuff to explore about Williams. There is a story here that has yet to be told properly. A few years ago, The Last Ride did an equally disappointing job at telling the Hank Williams story. Perhaps Williams's story needs a filmmaker who is more meticulous. Abraham throws everything to the wall with very, very little sticking. Director Harry Thomason and writers Howie Klausner and Dub Cornett didn't exactly bat a thousand for The Last Ride, either. As a film, I Saw The Light succeeds only in being a cure for insomnia. As a way for an incredible actor to truly show off his chops, Hiddleston's performance is as good of an example as you can get. I just hope by praising Hiddleston and nothing else, I didn't make him so lonesome that he could cry.
(1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for some language and brief sexuality/nudity)
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