Strong performances highlight formulaic Hank Williams biopic
Hank Williams became a country/western supernova during his 20s by distilling the human experiences of love, lust, betrayal and rejection down to lyrics evoking their raw essences.
Marc Abraham's biopic on Williams takes an oddly different approach to the musician's story. He makes it as formulaic and uninspiring as its expected, song-derived title "I Saw the Light."
(No doubt, the filmmakers would have preferred to call it "Your Cheatin' Heart," but that title was already taken by George Hamilton's underwhelming 1964 drama.)
British actor Tom Hiddleston - best known as the nefarious Loki from the Marvel Comics movies "Thor," "The Avengers" and "Thor: The Dark World" - dons Williams persona with grace and comfortable ease.
He captures the stylistic nuances of the singer's folksy delivery - complete with his playful yodel-ohing-oh - without creating a carbon copy of the original.
Hiddleston obviously invested a lot of time and study into preparing for this role, only to have it be swallowed up by a tired, generic Hollywood retelling of the tragic tale of the tortured artist whose bright flame was extinguished all too soon.
To be charitable, the real Williams did in many ways live the clichés of this genre: a talented singer/songwriter whose roving eye and appetite for alcohol led to turbulent relationships and an early death at 29.
Yet, Williams' life explodes with ripe opportunities for dramatic conflict, few of which are utilized in Abraham's minutia-obsessed screenplay (based on the book "Hank Williams: The Biography") more interested in examining the singer's sexual dalliances than exploring what actually made him tick as an artist.
"I Saw the Light" fumbles from the start with a black-and-white "documentary" interview with Williams' music publisher Fred Rose (Bradley Whitford), a cumbersome, ill-fitting device that precedes the opening scene in which a 21-year-old Williams gets hitched to a recently divorced young woman, Audrey (Elizabeth Olsen), at an Alabama service station.
The luminous Olsen provides a vibrant, fully realized character undermined by the material. Her slyly portrayed Audrey subtlety juxtaposes genuine affection for her new husband with cold affinity for the gravy train he provides.
Way before Yoko intercepted the Beatles, Audrey capitalizes on her marriage to crash Hank Williams and the Drifters as a featured singer, despite a severely limited amount of God-given talent. The Drifters aren't happy.
Williams dreams of one day hitting the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, and his hit single "Lovesick Blues" might just get him there.
Along the bumpy way, Williams and Audrey split, then regroup, then split, allowing Williams to parlay his fame and fortune into romances with hotter, younger women, sultry Billie Jean Jones (Maddie Hasson) and fiery Bobbie Jett (Wrenn Schmidt).
"I Saw the Light" sparks to life when Hiddleston and the boys strike up the band, singing about pain and loss and regret, little of which we actually feel in Abraham's biopic.
We don't even witness the singer's tragic death on the way to a New Year's concert. He's killed off in a public announcement.
Talk about a cold, cold heart.
“I Saw the Light”
★ ★
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen, Maddie Hasson, Bradley Whitford, Wrenn Schmidt
Directed by: Marc Abraham
Other: A Sony Pictures Classics release. Rated R for language, nudity, sexual situations. 123 minutes