FilmSnobReviews

Title: A Hologram for the King
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tom Hanks, Alexander Black, Sarita Choudhury
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins

What It Is: Alan (Hanks) is an ex-Schwinn executive responsible for outsourcing the companies manufacturing. When he accepts the job of project leader with a tech company he’ll have his hands full. Not only will he be traveling to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in order to get the King to buy holographic technology, but he’ll do so through the pain of an odd growth on his back. When the doctor (Choudhury) removes this growth Alan’s whole life may pivot in a positive direction.

What We Think: I really enjoyed this. Far more than I initially thought I would. Tom Hanks is his usual amazing self. He brings a sense of familiarity with him that lets us trust Alan and want him to succeed. I feel it needs mentioning that towards the end of the film when the tone changes I feel as though it does so in a negative way. It halted the momentum of what was becoming a great post-recession look into the subject of outsourcing and one man’s particular struggle with his own reality.

Our Grade: C+, While it works as a character study of sorts as a “romance” it definitely doesn’t work. It seems almost shoehorned in. Not having read the source material for this I cannot tell you whether or not it is more organic in the novel or not.