childers-3
Saw this last night on one of the pay channels and I thought Tom Hiddleston was wonderful. I'm not a fan of Hank Williams, but I am of Hiddleston and I thought he did a good job. There wasn't much character development and I wasn't given a chance to really care about his struggles. There was no chemistry at all between Olsen and Hiddleston. I've seen both of these people in better movies. In the hands of the right person, this could have been really good. It might have been better as a limited mini-series. It seemed rushed and his struggles, personally and professionally, were glossed over. Williams was only 29 when he died. That's incredibly young - he hadn't even reached his prime! Imagine what he would have done had he taken better care of himself. But then again, that may be why he was such a soulful singer.
leonblackwood
Review: For a movie that's about an iconic musical star, Hank Williams, it certainly was small in scale and the plot seemed to be going round and round in circles. You don't get to see how famous Hank Williams (Tom Hiddleston) really became, because his life seemed the same throughout the film, even though he had over 35 top selling records and quite a bit of money in the bank. He made a majority of his earnings from touring, so when he was diagnosed with having severe back problems, he became depressed and he turned to alcohol for comfort. His womanising ways also put a heavy strain on his long time relationship with Audrey Williams (Elizabeth Olsen), and with the studios putting pressure on him to produce new songs, his life in the big time was quite depressing towards the end of his life. At 29 years old, his illness gets the better of him, and he dies in a car whilst heading towards a live performance. Its quite a sad movie about a talented man, even though I didn't really like his music but his yodelaying style, was truly unique and it always got the crowds going. Hiddleston put in a top performance, especially as he sung a lot of the songs himself but the film is quite boring because the director chose to concentrate on his relationships, more than his music. You don't get to find out that much about the man and his music, and although he had so many top hits, he didn't seem to change, in terms of the response from the public and his life style. Anyway, I wasn't that impressed with the structure of the end product but it's still worth a watch to see Hiddleston's performance. Disappointing!Round-Up: With such a lose at the box office, Hiddleston seems to be struggling to hit the big time away from the Thor and Avengers franchise. At 35 years old, he has definitely become an household name as Loki, which he played quite well but Crimson Peak, High-Rise, Only Lovers Left Alive, War Horse and the Deep Blue Sea, have all been pretty mediocre after his new found fame. With 4 movies in the pipeline, which include Hard Boiled, Thor: Ragnarok and Kong: Skull Island, he has plenty of time to prove that he can make it without the Avengers team behind him, and I can't wait to see a return of the Night Manager series, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Anyway, this movie was written and directed by Marc Abraham, who also brought you Flash of Genius in 2008, starring Greg Kinnear. He's mostly known for producing movies, with hits like the Commitments, Air Force One, The Hurricane, End of Days, Spy Game, Children of Men, the Thing 2011, In Time, and Robocop 2014, tied to his name, so he obviously has worked on some big budget movies in his career but this movie was pretty poor. With Hank Williams music making such an impact around the world, this project really did need an established director to portray his interesting story, which was cut short due to illness.Budget: $13million Worldwide Gross: $1.8millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their biography/music/dramas, starring Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen, Bradley Whitford, Cherry Jones, Maddie Hasson and Wrenn Schmidt. 3/10
HoosierBob
Hank Williams was one of those talents who just seem to come along ever so often from "out of nowhere" and becomes a legend in his own time. Hank was a candle that burnt out quickly but only leaving behind great music, which was later recorded by just about every big name in the music business of the sixties and seventies, anyway.I am a sucker for true stories and "time pieces" so this was a film I wanted to see as soon as I saw an advert for it, even though I did not like country western in the days Mr Williams was still alive. Hank Williams is however a major reason I started listening to country western, and the lead actor Tim Hiddleston looks like Hank and portrays him as accurately as I suspect anybody could without making him look "cardboard".The music is played throughout the film and the scenery was well researched. (Don't look for any out of era vehicles, I don't think you will find any.)The film is best for an adult crowd for the language used in the film, but if you can see this for the great film I think it is, you will enjoy it.If this film is not Oscar material...nothing is of late.
