SADDLE UP...
Tom Hanks’ Civil War veteran has a job on his hands returning young girl to her family
NEWS OF THE WORLD (12) ★★★★
OSCAR-NOMINATED writer-director Paul Greengrass reunites with his Captain Phillips leading man, Tom Hanks, for a Western set five years after the end of the American Civil War.
Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (two-time Oscar winner Hanks) bears the physical and emotional scars of three tours of duty as a Confederate infantryman.
He travels from town to town in 1870 Texas, sharing newspaper stories with hard-working folk who have neither the time nor the energy to pore over pages of printed text in the aftermath of a bitter and bloody civil war.
On a trail leading from Wichita Falls, he stumbles upon a 10-year-old German girl called Johanna Leonberger (Helena Zengel).
Documents found nearby reveal that her mother, father and younger sister were killed six years ago by the Kiowa people, who raised her with a new name, Cicada.
The law dictates that Johanna must be forcibly returned to her biological uncle and aunt (Neil Sandilands and Winsome Brown) in Castroville.
Kidd reluctantly agrees to become the girl’s temporary custodian. En route to Castroville, the mismatched travelling companions cross paths with a lonely innkeeper (Elizabeth Marvel), powerhungry militia leader (Gabriel Ebert) and a sadistic former soldier (Michael Covino), who considers Johanna a prize to be wrested from Kidd’s tender grasp.
News Of The World saddles up for a visually arresting tour of familiar narrative paths.
Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski relishes the changing light and earthy colour palette while composer James Newton Howard’s rousing score incorporates piano, banjo and guitar.
Hanks imbues his travelling storyteller with quiet nobility and honour, qualities which are tested to the limit during the perilous 400-mile trek through untamed wilderness.
He catalyses winning on-screen chemistry with luminous rising star Zengel, who possess a rare ability to convey inner turmoil without saying a word.
Centrepiece sequences, including a mountainside shoot-out, are orchestrated with brio by Greengrass, who is well versed in the slambang thrills of the Jason Bourne franchise.
This rodeo is a more sedate and contemplative affair, but thoroughly engrossing.
Watch from February 10 on Netflix