In John Prine’s classic country standard ‘Angel From Montgomery’ the line runs, “How the hell can a person go to work in the morning/And come home in the evening and have nothing to say?” Much the same inquiry could be made of I Saw The Light, a rather rote and overlong biopic of the late great country singer Hank Williams.
Hank’s life was rock ‘n’ roll before rock ‘n’ roll really even existed: sex, drugs, and a romantically early death which literally happened on the road. His songs were full of plaintive yearning and a loss more felt than it was understood. Like the best country music, it was the sound of a heart breaking with a twang. I Saw The Light manages to take a man who became an archetype and turn him into something two-dimensional.
Tom Hiddleston as Hank is far and away the best thing about this film (as is the case with most things he’s in – see also High Rise and the MCU). He begins as a chipper if somewhat restless and inconsiderate young performer, turning up to radio shows with a hangover and a disarming grin. Over the course of the next two hours he fades and withers before our eyes, his frame gaunt and taut as a guitar string held rigid inside billowing Grand Ol’ Opry get-ups. From dark glances under tilted Stetsons and languid pleas to distrusting lovers, Hiddleston inhabits the role of the tortured artist with his usual passionate intensity. It’s also worth noting the quality of Hiddleston’s singing, and he manages to walk the line between being too much of a departure from Hank’s inimitable voice and simple pastiche admirably.
Elizabeth Olsen is a quality enough side-note as Hank’s first beau Audrey Mae Williams, but she’s underused after the first act. What could have been a rounded and interesting character, with her own faded hopes and dreams to play counterpoint to the lead, becomes instead a disappointing caricature of the pampered showbusiness wife before disappearing altogether with little fanfare.
Also enjoyable (up to a point) is the cinematography, which captures the lush light of the American South with shining glory; light which starts off full of hope and ends as a spotlight on the man’s collapse. There are a couple of moments, when wavering close-ups fill the screen with Hiddleston’s worn and sweat-drenched face, which hint at what could have been a much more intimate and revealing picture. Too often, however, the scenes are over-staged and overshot. The very opening, with Hiddleston singing an unaccompanied version of ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ in a darkened room, gives fair enough warning of the film’s directorial tendencies: so on-the-nose that you’d often be well advised to grab a couple of cotton balls and keep your head tipped back. The approach could have worked thanks to Hiddleston’s magnetism, but even he can’t carry the crowd alone.
Another fairly inexplicable production choice is the use of faux-archive footage to punctuate the action, as well as talking head explanations shot in ‘50s style but featuring the actors who are actually playing the real-life characters. It’s an intriguing aside at first, but quickly becomes irritating and then meaningless. It takes us out of the flow of action (which is choppy enough as it is) and gives the impression that the filmmakers don’t really know what kind of picture they’re making. Is it a mockumentary (or honky-tonkumentary)? Is it breaking the fourth wall, or throwing up a fifth? The time spent putting together these little 9.5mm interludes would have been far more profitably spent honing a script with less tension than a snapped guitar string.disco dome
For such a lengthy film the climax is sudden and unfulfilling, with the singer’s demise occurring off-stage and with almost no weight behind it. Hank Williams lived a life of great physical and mental pain, and one thing I Saw The Light does manage to successfully suggest is the idea that his death was, as much as anything else, something of a release for the man. It’s a slight to his legacy that, despite a couple of fine performances and some well done musical numbers, it comes as rather a relief to the audience as well. Skip the show, buy the album instead. 2/5
Check out the rest of the latest cinema releases in our new movie reviews section including Whit Stillman’s steely and subversive Love & Friendship.
