eddie_baggins Frustrating. That is how I would describe this unfocused and sadly unengaging biopic of legendary country singer Hank Williams, the man responsible for such memorable ditties as What You Got Cooking and Cold Cold Heart.At one time or another spoken about as being a likely contender at the Academy Awards, Marc Abraham's film that features an outstanding and deservedly acknowledged performance from British superstar Tom Hiddleston, I Saw the Light became a true non-event upon release around the world, making a paltry $1.6 million at the worldwide box office and a fate even worse here in Australia where it has been dumped straight onto home release without even the slightest bit of fanfare around, which is such a shame considering the material and tools at Abraham's disposal.William's story from that centres on an incredible rise to fame from a relatively sad upbringing is completely mishandled by Abraham with the film rarely, if ever, offering up much lead in or background to Williams bar an impressive meltdown at a music festival where Williams addresses the crowd under extreme duress. It's nigh on infuriating that we're never really allowed inside this talented performers mindset or history and makes the film feel as though it's at arm's length away at all times.This feeling of disconnect can be laid almost entirely to blame on Abraham as Hiddleston who has still perhaps been at his best as Loki in The Avengers before this film rather than the over praised Only Lovers Left Alive, The Deep Blue Sea and the overrated BBC series The Night Manager makes this role his own from the word go.As the camera slowly lingers in towards Hiddleston performing an impressive instrument free rendition (Hiddleston performs all his own songs here as well as playing the guitar) of hit William's song Cold Cold Heart to an intently concentrating audience, you forget that you're watching the British actor and feel as though you're instead witnessing the complete re-embodying of Williams. It's a turn that deserves a much better movie even if he gets solid support from Elizabeth Olsen as William's long suffering love Audrey.I Saw the Light is a real missed opportunity to not only tell the story of Williams but give Hiddleston the film his performance deserved and while the die-hard fans of Williams may find this film better than us Williams outsiders, it would be very hard to find many other reasons to watch this soulless film other than to see Hiddleston deliver the acting turn of his career so far.2 electric garage door buttons out of 5

Oeuvre_Klika I am very disappointed by this movie. I gave it 5 stars because of the performances and production values, which were both very good. Tom Hiddleston, of which I am a fan, delivers a great performance, as he usually does, and it was a pleasure to hear him sing. He seems to have put a lot of effort to put himself into the character, and I salute that. Elisabeth Olsen, as Audrey Williams, is also excellent.However, the movie itself is extremely bland. Even a film based on real life events needs to have a story arc in order to engage the viewers. There's factual, and then there's boring. There was no story in this movie, just (sometimes very) short sequences from Williams' life in chronological order. The first half of the movie was particularly jarring, as we moved from one event to another, without time to feel the impact of one scene before the next arrived. I'm not calling for melodrama, but this first half was as engaging as a Wikipedia page. It did get slightly better in the second half.For a musical biopic, there was a surprising lack of focus on music. Sure, we were shown musical performances, but we weren't shown a lot of context around them, making them seem more decorative than part of the story told. Maybe the film was made only for aficionados who already know everything about the country & western music business from the 40's? I doubt it. My biggest disappointment is that, apart from making me listen to beautiful songs, this movie completely failed to show me how important Hank Williams is in the history of music. If I had never heard about him (and before this year, I had never heard about him), I would be baffled as to why they felt it was important to make a movie about him.I could understand their choice to focus more on Williams' personal life, if they had made it interesting to me. But the movie is as unemotional as they could have made it. The direction is so detached that I sometimes felt like I was watching some sort of existential comedy, a la Coen brothers. Maybe I'm slightly exaggerating, but I did laugh at some scenes that I don't feel were supposed to be funny. I could not be invested emotionally at all, with the exception of a very few scenes. I really blame the direction here, because the actors did give emotional performances. It just seemed that the director didn't want us to feel any empathy for anyone.

bandw I came away from this with the same reaction I have to so many biopics: the best way to know an artist his through his or her work.Tom Hiddleston gives a credible performance, but it seemed just that-- a performance. It lacked any spark of charisma to make me care for Williams with any emotional depth. Curious that an English actor would take on this role, even to the extent of singing. The fact of having Hiddleston sing instead of using actual Williams recordings was a gamble that did not pay off for me. When Hiddleston sings "Cold, Cold Heart" very early on his cover was off just enough to be jarring to me. You can teach a dog to walk on its hind legs, but what you still have is a dog walking on its hind legs.The movie spends a lot of time on Willims' stormy relationship with his first wife Audrey--the first scene with them has them being married. So, we jump in when Williams was 21, at a time that precluded any discussion of Willaims' youth. Seeing what the foundation was for the talent that was to come would have been of interest. Williams led a hectic life and I wish this movie could have been edited better to allow for guiding us through the maelstrom with better clarity.There was a dichotomy between what we see of Williams' life and the lyrics of his songs. Where did deeply sensitive lyrics like,----------I tried so hard, my dear, to show that you're my every dreamYet you're afraid each thing I do is just some evil scheme A memory from your lonesome past keeps us so far apart Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold, cold heart?------------come from? On the up side, this movie reminded me of what a wonderful songwriter Williams was, how in such a short life he gave us so many memorable songs.Maybe what makes an artist tick must always remain a mystery, but I did not get too close to what made Williams' tick from this movie.

capone666 I Saw The LightThe number one threat to a country music star's career is their successful transition into pop music.Unfortunately, the cowboy crooner in this biopic didn't live long enough to employ auto-tune.Repetitively rejected from the Grand Ole Opry for his youthful inexperience, Hank Williams (Tom Hiddleston) wasn't able to strike a cord with promotes, fans, and later Hollywood, until he started composing ditties inspired by spats he had had with his singing partner and wife (Elizabeth Olsen).But just as those hit records were rolling in, Hank's dalliances, hard drinking and drug use derailed his meteoric rise. Although Hiddleston is able to embody the honky-tonk hero in appearance and essence, his vocal range is lacking that hillbilly twang. Meanwhile, the laborious script and ham-fisted director are more concerned with chastising him for his faults than celebrating his triumphs.Incidentally, sex with Minnie Pearl was not the cause of his death. Red Light vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca