I Saw The Light

Hidds and miss…

one of THE biggest icons of country music, Hank Williams is considered a national treasure anywhere they still whistle folksy classics like ‘Lovesick Blues’, ‘Hey, Good Lookin’’ and ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’. Unsurprisingly, Hank’s fans (and relatives) weren’t too happy to hear that the Westminster-born, Etoneducated Tom Hiddleston would be playing him in Marc Abraham’s long-gestating biopic.

Employing a thick gravy ‘n’ biscuits accent that only occasionally slips into RP, Hidds doesn’t sound too far from Alabama – and, of course, it doesn’t really matter whether or not he can sing like Hank because nobody can sing like Hank, which is sort of the whole point. What matters more is that the film isn’t very good. Less a biopic than a dramatised Wikipedia page, every fact, plot point and character beat is played directly on the nose, with Hank going from poor drunken asshole to rich drunken asshole in the least eventful way possible.

Bracketed by a clumsy framing device that sees Bradley Whitford pretending he’s in a documentary, ISTL begins with Hank’s marriage to honky-tonk queen Audrey Sheppard (Elizabeth Olsen) and follows him through his rocky rise to post-war fame as ‘The Hillbilly Shakespeare’. Wives come and go, gigs are played, hits are made, drinks are drunk… And all of this plods along without any of the deft storytelling of Hank’s own songs.

When Abraham leaves the camera on Hiddleston and Olsen long enough to let them chew on their characters, the film offers flashes of something much more interesting: a handful of domestic scenes prove that the actors, not to mention Hank, would’ve been much better served by a ballsier script and braver direction. THE VERDICT Poor Tom Hiddleston – he spent months perfecting his southern accent for a biopic that lets him down almost as much as it does Hank Williams. › Certificate 15 Director Marc Abraham Starring Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen, David Krumholtz, Bradley Whitford, Cherry Jones Screenplay Marc Abraham Distributor Sony Running time 124 mins

Hank’s hat, ironically, prevented him from seeing the light.