I Saw the Light

I have definitely heard my fair share of country music lately!  While I am not usually a fan of the genre, I have been looking forward to I Saw the Light, a new biopic about country music legend Hank Williams, because I always enjoy stories about interesting people and I was hoping that it would be as entertaining as Walk the Line, a biopic about another country music icon, Johnny Cash, which I really enjoyed.  Hank Williams lived a life that was every bit as compelling as Johnny Cash did but, unfortunately, this movie certainly does not live up to Walk the Line.  I saw the film last night and it chronicles Williams' (Tom Hiddleston) first marriage to Audrey Sheppard (Elizabeth Olsen), his early days as a radio performer, his first recording contract in Nashville, his heyday on the Grand Ole Opry, his descent into alcohol and drug abuse, his second marriage to Billie Jean Jones (Maddie Hasson), and his untimely death at the age of 29.  In my opinion, the narrative lacks cohesion.  Events seem very random and there were many times when I wondered what was going on.  This is particularly true when Williams is in a sanatorium trying to get sober.  Out of nowhere we see Williams writhing on a bed and then, in the next scene, we see him signing himself out as an attendant tells him he looks better than when he came in and Williams vows that he won't be back.  We see many early scenes of Williams behaving badly, before becoming famous, but we never really know the cause of his ennui.  The script briefly touches on his mother's possessiveness, his absent father, and his not-even-remotely-talented and self-serving wife's attempts to use him to further her own career, but these themes are abandoned quickly and I wish that they had been explored with more depth.  What redeems this film, somewhat, is Hiddleston's amazing portrayal of Williams.  Like Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line, Hiddleston physically inhabits the role while performing all of Williams' songs himself and, while he doesn't sound exactly like him, he does a convincing job of capturing all of his idiosyncrasies.  I will admit that there were times when I lost interest in what was happening on screen but my attention never wavered when Hiddleston was performing, especially when he sings "Lovesick Blues" during his first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry.  I had goosebumps!  Such a brilliant performance deserves a better script!  I would recommend that you give it a miss.