**Spoiler Alert**
Director: Marc Abraham/Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen, Bradley Whitford, Cherry Jones, Maddie Hasson and David Krumholtz
I don't know if the world needs a narrative film on country music great Hank Williams but you can be sure it didn't need a sloppy, clunky and junky biopic like director Marc Abraham's I Saw the Light. If a film features a name cast but opens only in one local theater, you can be pretty sure industry folk know something you don't and what they know they deliberately withhold. They only hope you'll overlook the stench wafting out of the theater and throw caution and greenbacks to the wind. A what a reek Abraham's film generates! If you didn't know the subject was Hank Williams, you might think the movie was about any philandering, drunk musician. But its single greatest flaw is its casual regard for Williams' music, which the story treats almost as an intrusion; a pesky interloper that keeps getting in the way of the seamier side of the singer's life.
The trendy aesthetic the film adopts is the black and white to color imagery seen in another current music biopic; Born to Be Blue. We see and hear two men from William's life; filmed in the recollective black and white of the present while their memories--depicted in color--represent the past. One of the men; famed music publisher Fred Rose (Bradley Whitford), shares facts of Williams' life with an unseen interviewer (documentarian?). Rose appears periodically throughout the film as a kind of narrator and purveyor of tragic details though we never learn just who he is talking to.
We see Williams (Tom Hiddleston) just before he achieves super-stardom; playing radio gigs and honky-tonks in his Alabamian home-state with his band and wife Audrey (Elizabeth Olsen), who lends her vocals to the performances. Shortly thereafter, we see the couple exchange vows at a gas station in Andalusia, Alabama, as the proprietor performs the service. Though the couple shows outward signs of marital bliss, Audrey experiences frustration as she tries to share the stage spotlight with her husband. But she finds her marriage trying for other reasons; one of them being her mother-in-law Lillie (Cherry Jones, who is continually upstaged by set props), who she battles constantly for influence in Hank's life. Another glaring issue is Hank's drinking, which threatens the marriage and becomes a professional liability.
Eager and ambitious, Hank's dream of playing at the Grand Ole Opry hits a snag when the legendary venue's director tells him to come back when he has achieved more success. Undeterred, Hank is able to record a single, Lovesick Blues, over Rose's protestations about the song's suitability. The single becomes a hit and before long, Williams receives an invitation to perform at the Opry.
As Williams' sordid behavior on the road becomes habitual, Audrey begins to express her disgust with his womanizing and before long Hank finds himself barred from their home. Soon after, divorce proceedings commence.
When not enthralled with the dramas offstage, the film manages to devote some time to Williams onstage; performing some of the songs for which he is known. Hiddleston does a respectable job performing the songs and doing his level best to appear Williams-like. As with every music biopic I see, I had hoped to see some scenes of song-craft, giving us a sense of the artistry behind the music but I guess directors consider such scenes un-cinematic.
We see more of Williams relationships and his marriage to Billie Jean Jones (Maddie Hasson). We do see him achieve his dream of playing the Grand Ole Opry, which is followed by his return to Alabama as a country music hero. He is able to accomplish both in between pissing women off and his passion for the bottle.
And though we see Williams sing Your Cheatin' Heart and Why Don't You Love Me, we get to hear precious few of his other classics. How does a film about Hank Williams not include even a snippet of Jambalaya? Or Kaw-Liga; songs that stand as tall as Hey Good Lookin', if not taller? Why must the music take a backseat to scenes such as one where a doctor diagnoses Williams' chronic back problems as spina bifida, a sequence that does little to shed light on the man except to explain his pain. Are we all dying to know about Hank Williams' lower back aches? Yes, two great country songs were preempted by spina bifida. As for the influences behind his music, Williams' love for gospel as a child is mentioned in passing.
When tragedy strikes late in the film, we don't feel a sense of heavy loss but relief that such a tepid film has mercifully come to an end. We don't even get obligatory end-titles telling us about Williams' musical legacy, just an abrupt cut to the closing credits. Maybe that's for the better.
Hiddleston and Olsen are fine in a flop. Too bad for Hiddleston; playing Williams' is a refreshing departure from his role as Loki in the Thor franchise.
The formulaic, music biopic narrative we've come to know: artist hungry for stardom--artist secures brass ring--artist womanizes and abuses substances--artist dies at young age--may as well be chiseled as a script blueprint on a bronze plate for unimaginative future filmmakers to follow. If you really want to know about Williams' life, you could do far worse than read a Wikipedia entry. But if you prefer to watch a flick about a musician who romances a few chicks, drinks lethally and sings a few famous tunes, then this is your stop. Just don't expect more.
