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MY REVIEW OF LOVING

lovingLoving, rated PG-13
***

Loving is a well-acted portrayal of a true love story that changed U.S. history.
This film is directed and written by Jeff Nichols (Mud). The film has received Golden Globe nominations for Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, and a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Negga. The film received a standing ovation at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2016.
At the heart of this film is Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton, The Gift) and his girlfriend Mildred (Ruth Negga). The film begins in 1958 in the state of Virginia.  Richard is a hard-working auto mechanic and construction worker. The film opens with Mildred telling Richard that she is pregnant. He is happy with the news. They want to get married but can’t in Virginia as Richard is white and Mildred is black. Interracial marriage has been illegal in Virginia since 1924. So they go to Washington D.C. to get married, and then return back to their families and to the property Richard purchased for their future home in Caroline County, Virginia to begin their married life together.

***SPOILER ALERT***
But they are soon violently awoken in the middle of the night by the county sheriff and some of his deputies, and arrested for violating a law prohibiting interracial marriage. Their lawyer Frank Beazley (Bill Camp, The Night Of) enters a plea before the judge that in effect says that if they plead guilty they must leave the state for a period of 25 years.  They then move to Washington D.C. and begin their family, which grows to three children. But they long to return to Virginia.
Mildred watches a civil rights march led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and eventually writes a letter to Attorney General Robert Kennedy. This begins a legal battle that will last nearly 11 years.  Nick Kroll portrays ACLU attorney Bernie Cohen who helps the Lovings take their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The U.S. Supreme Court decision of Loving v. Virginia was decided June 12, 1967. It unanimously held that Virginia’s “Racial Integrity Act of 1924,” which forbade marriage between people of different races, was unconstitutional. This decision therefore effectively voided all such laws in other states as well.
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The acting performances by Edgerton and Negga are outstanding. Their love for each other under extremely trying circumstances comes through clearly. On the downside, the film moved extremely slowly. The film is rated PG-13 for a small amount of adult language and a few uses of the “n-word”.
Nichols was able to tell the story of the Loving family as accurately as possible by relying on Nancy Buirski’s 2011 documentary The Loving Story. The documentary captured many details of the couple’s private lives, and much of the dialogue in the film comes directly from the documentary. The Lovings story has also been portrayed in the 1996 TV movie Mr. and Mrs. Loving, which starred Timothy Hutton and Lela Rochon.


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My Review of The Founder

the-founderThe Founder, rated PG-13
***

The Founder tells the true story of the founding of McDonald’s, but it is a less than positive portrayal of Ray Kroc as a man.
The low budget film (just $7 million) is directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side), and written by Robert D. Siegel (The Wrestler). Oscar winner (Birdman) Michael Keaton stars as Ray Kroc. The film begins in 1954. Kroc is a traveling milkshake-mixer salesman in the Midwest for Prince Castle. It’s a hard job and we see him repeatedly getting turned down for sales while he eats at drive-in restaurants.
He then receives a call from his secretary that will change his life. A restaurant in San Bernardino, California wants to buy an unheard of eight of his large mixers. He drives across the country to the restaurant owned by the likeable brothers Maurice “Mac” (John Carroll Lynch) and Dick (Nick Offerman) McDonald. There he sees something he’s never seen before – a fast-food restaurant, selling just hamburgers, fries and drinks.

***SPOILER ALERT***
The brothers are honest businessmen, and though not rich, are satisfied with the success they are having. Kroc however, sees much more potential. His vision is to take the restaurant that the brothers developed to the rest of the country. Although they are initially hesitant, they eventually agree to partner with him, a decision that they will soon come to regret.
Laura Dern stars as Kroc’s wife Ethel. She tries to be supportive of Ray, as she lives a lonely life by herself at their home in Arlington Heights, Illinois, as he is on the road most of the time. Ray will divorce her for Joan (Linda Cardellini), a younger woman, the wife of a restaurant owner who would become one of his franchise owners.
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Themes in the film are betrayal, trust, regret, greed, deception and theft. The film is rated PG-13 for a small amount of adult language and the abuse of God’s name.
Keaton is outstanding in his portrayal of Kroc. I’ve read about the story of McDonald’s in John Maxwell’s book 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership as he discusses “The Law of the Lid”. The Law of the Lid is that “Leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness”. Maxwell writes “Leadership ability – or more specifically the lack of leadership ability – was the lid on the McDonald’s brother’s effectiveness”.  The film clearly shows that Kroc had vision and leadership, which resulted in McDonald’s being what it is today. The McDonald brothers may not have had the leadership ability that Kroc had, but they had much more character, and I would prefer to have that.


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My Review of The Resurrection of Gavin Stone

the-resurrection-of-gavin-stoneThe Resurrection of Gavin Stone, rated PG
**

The Resurrection of Gavin Stone is pretty standard Christian movie fare. It contains some good attempts at humor but is overall rather slow and predictable.
This faith-based film is directed by Dallas Jenkins and written by Andrea Gyertson Nasfell (Mom’s Night Out).  The low-budget film had an estimated budget of just $2 million (compare that to the $20 mil Jennifer Lawrence was paid for the film Passengers, for example). But let’s face it, most faith-based films are just not very good, inspiring this recent story from The Babylon Bee “Holy Spirit Empowers Man To Make It Through Christian Movie”.
Brett Dalton (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) stars as the arrogant and self-centered Gavin Stone, a former child star of the sitcom Family Life, whose life has been in a downward spiral since his mother died. His latest drunken episode has resulted in him being sentenced to do 200 hours of state mandated community service hours to be served at Masonville Bible Church, a megachurch in his hometown of Masonville, Illinois. Note:  the church used in the film is actually Harvest Bible Chapel in nearby Elgin, Illinois. Harvest Pastor James McDonald was an executive producer for the film.
Instead of mopping restroom floors, party-boy Gavin portrays himself as a Christian so that he can play the part of Jesus in the church’s stage production, being directed by Kelly Richardson (Anjelah Johnson-Reyes), the pastor’s daughter. D.B. Sweeney stars as Pastor Allen Richardson. Gavin sees the play as a way not only to get out of hard work, but also a way of getting closer to Kelly, who doesn’t comes across as a very likeable character.
We meet three local church guys (stereotypical Christian characters written and played for laughs), who help Gavin. He in turn then helps them to be better actors in the play. One of the guys is Doug, a tough biker, played by WWE (formerly the World Wrestling Foundation) Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels.
Gavin has a difficult relationship with his father Waylon, played by Neil Flynn, who he moves back in with while he does his community service work.
The acting performances from Dalton, Johnson-Reyes, Flynn and Michaels are solid, as is the directing by Jenkins. The story is predictable and the film will appeal to Christians, but will not get much interest from non-Christians. The film was somewhat entertaining, but pretty slow. Themes include grace, forgiveness and redemption. You might want to rent the film when it comes out on video or streaming, but best to save your money on seeing it in the theatre.


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My Review of Patriots Day

patriots-dayPatriots Day, rated R
***

Patriots Day is the emotional, powerful and ultimately inspirational depiction of the events surrounding the terrorist bombing at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013 and the heroic efforts to find the bombers.

It is the third film that Mark Wahlberg has worked on with director Peter Berg, 2013’s Lone Survivor and 2016’s Deepwater Horizon being the first two, all of which are based on true stories. The film’s title is taken from the Massachusetts state holiday that commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War on April 19, 1775. It is celebrated on the third Monday in April, and the Boston Marathon is held that day. Peter Berg wrote the script with Matt Cook and Joshua Zetumer.  This is the first of possibly three movies about this historical event, the second being 2017’s Stronger starring Jake Gyllenhaal, based on Jeff Bauman’s book of the same title, and Boston Strong, currently in development.

Most will be familiar with the tragic events that the film is based on in which two Muslim brothers set off bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing four and wounding 264 others. Berg begins the film with a twenty minute sequence that introduces us to the many characters who will play major roles in the drama over the next few days; it can be a bit of a challenge to keep them all straight.  The film follows authority figures, ordinary citizens and the terrorists from the night before the violent attacks to the resulting manhunt.

The film features a strong cast. The lead role is Boston police sergeant Tommy Saunders (a composite of real officers), played by two-time Oscar nominee and Boston native Wahlberg (The Fighter, The Departed).  Because Saunders has been disciplined, he finds himself at the center of the bombing when makeshift explosives go off at the finish line of the marathon. Golden Globe nominee (True Detective) Michelle Monaghan portrays Tommy’s wife Carol. Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) in a relatively small role portrays nearby Watertown Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese. Golden Globe winner (Roseanne) John Goodman portrays Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, and Golden Globe winner (Taking Chance) Kevin Bacon portrays Special FBI Agent Richard DesLauriers. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Alex Wolff) and brother Tamerlan (Themo Melikidze) play the bombers well, with Tamerlan’s American wife being played by Melissa Benoist (Supergirl).

After the bombing, we see the investigation and week-long manhunt take place, which kept the entire city of Boston paralyzed with fear. This includes the attempted getaway of the brothers, including a carjacking and the abduction of Northeastern student Dun Meng, portrayed by Jimmy O. Yang. Actual footage is effectively used throughout, adding realism to the film.

The film is rated “R” for the intense bomb sequence, the following horror, including gruesome visual images of the injuries, and a significant amount of adult language.

This well-made film shows how the city of Boston – first responders, police, FBI agents, emergency room doctors and nurses, etc. – all came together in response to this tragedy. It was both chilling and inspiring. The acting was solid with the focus on the story. When the public confidence in law enforcement is low, this film shows those in such roles in a positive light. The cinematography and visual effects are done very well, complimented by Trent Reznor’s musical score. The film ends with a brief look at some of the real-life survivors of the tragedy.


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My Review of Hidden Figures

hidden-figuresHidden Figures, rated PG
**** 

Hidden Figures is a true, inspirational film that you will love.  It is directed by Theodore Melfi (St. Vincent), and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder, based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly.  It tells the story of some key – and hidden – figures in NASA’s efforts to win the space race against the Russians in the early 1960’s. The film features three African-American women, known as “colored computers”, who work for NASA in the Computers Division at the Langley Research Center. The setting is the Mercury Project, the launch of astronaut John Glenn (portrayed by Glenn Powell), into orbit, and his safe return.

Oscar winner (The Help) Octavia Spencer has received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of Dorothy Vaughan. Dorothy does the work of a group supervisor but is held back from receiving the title, pay and recognition of that position. She experiences racism from her supervisor Vivian Mitchell (Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man films), who doesn’t believe an African-American woman should be a supervisor.  Janelle Monae (Moonlight) portrays Mary Jackson, an aerospace engineer who has to take her case to court to be allowed to take classes to pursue an advanced degree. She is striving to overcome all of the obstacles on her way to becoming the first female African-American Engineer at NASA. Oscar nominee (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) Taraji P. Henson portrays Katherine Johnson, an incredible mathematician. She is the only African-American woman working in the Space Task Group. We see her have to fight to have her ideas heard. She has to run across the NASA campus to use the colored ladies restroom and she can’t drink out of the same coffee pot that others in the Space Task Group do. Her performance may be Oscar worthy.

Two-time Oscar winner (Dances with Wolves) Kevin Costner delivers a solid performance as Al Harrison, the head of the Space Task Group.  Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) portrays Jim Johnson, who romantically pursues Katherine, and Golden Globe winner (The Big Bang Theory) Jim Parsons portrays Katherine’s supervisor Paul Stafford, who puts one obstacle after another in Katherine’s ability to do her job.

I really enjoyed the music in the film. The film has received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score – Motion Picture from Hans Zimmer, Pharrell Williams and Benjamin Wallfisch. Williams also served as one of the producers of the film.

There are many instances of faith being displayed in the film (a scene in church, prayer at the dinner table, etc.).  The romance between Jim Johnson and Katherine is lovely, and should be an example to the younger generation, along with the work ethic portrayed and the emphasis on education.  The film shows the racism and the pursuit of civil rights in the country in the early 1960’s. The film also includes some real-life footage of space launches, a speech from President Kennedy, etc.

The film tells the inspirational story of these three brilliant and driven African-American women who battled race and gender biases. It features excellent acting performances and is a refreshing PG-rated film that all can enjoy without worrying about content issues.

Highly recommended!


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My Review of Passengers

passengersPassengers, rated PG-13
** ½  

Though mildly entertaining, and featuring some solid acting performances and visuals, Passengers doesn’t quite live up to the high expectations I had for this film. My recommendation is to save your money on seeing this film in the theatre, and wait for it to come out on video/streaming.

Passengers is directed by Oscar nominee (The Imitation Game) Morten Tyldum and written by Jon Spaihts (Doctor Strange). It features star power in Oscar winner (Silver Linings Playbook) Jennifer Lawrence as the writer Aurora Lane and Chris Pratt (Jurassic World, Guardians of the Galaxy) as the mechanical engineer Jim Preston. The film had an estimated budget of $110 million. Of that, Lawrence reportedly was paid $20 million and Pratt $12 million. However, reports were that reshoots for the film were scheduled as late as October, just two months before release, to correct story elements that were not working.

**SPOILER ALERT**

The film tells us about the Starship Avalon, which is transporting 5,259 people (5,000 passengers and 259 crew members), on a 120-year voyage from an overcrowded Earth to a distant planet known as the Homestead Colony. As the ship goes through a severe meteor shower just 30 years into the voyage, the ship is jarred and Preston’s hibernation pod is opened. (Note: the hibernation pods reminded me of those featured in the television series Wayward Pines).  We see Jim awake, and slowly realize that something has gone terribly wrong. He is the only one on the ship who is awake, and he has awoken nearly 90 years too early. We can feel his utter loneliness and helplessness as he wanders around the ship and even outside of it for more than a year, at one point contemplating suicide, as he realizes he will not be alive when the ship reaches its destination. We see his appearance deteriorate. His only companion is Arthur, an android bartender, my favorite character in the film, played by Michael Sheen (The Queen).

Jim then notices the beautiful Aurora asleep in her pod. As he begins to find out more about her by watching her videos, he longs to spend time with her. He is so lonely that he contemplates waking her up. He knows exactly what that would mean to her, and he seriously battles with that moral dilemma. But then we see him give in to the loneliness, and make the decision to wake her up.

But Jim isn’t honest with Aurora about why she woke up. We see their relationship grow, inevitably leading to them having sex a few times. We also see them work together to address mechanical issues that arise on the ship. The only other human that wakes up is Gus Mancuso, Oscar nominee (What’s Love Got to Do With It) Lawrence Fishburne.

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The film included some good, though not great visuals, especially the exterior views of the ship as it continued on its 120 year journey to the Homestead Colony. We saw the film in 3D, and though I didn’t feel it added much to the experience (except the additional $3 to the ticket price), there was one very impressive scene with a swimming pool when gravity was suspended.

The acting in the film was good. Pratt did an excellent job of portraying loneliness and hopelessness. It shows what Genesis 2:18 states “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Lawrence, already a four-time Oscar nominee at age 26, brought her usual strong performance. The film includes some nudity (Pratt, when he is alone on the ship), and some sexual content. There is minimal adult language included, which was refreshing for a PG-13 film. The film in addition to the themes of loneliness, helplessness and disappointment, also shows self-sacrifice, courage and love.


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My Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

rogue-oneRogue One: A Star Wars Story, rated PG-13
****

This is the first installment in the Star Wars: Anthology series. This film is set anywhere from a few weeks to a few days before Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope (1977). It is directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla), and is visually stunning. The script is written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy. The music by Michael Giacchino is excellent, and it’s the first Star Wars film not to be scored by the now 84-year old John Williams. The film had an estimated budget of $200 million.

This film is perhaps the least “kid friendly” of the Star Wars films, being a war film at its core, featuring an outstanding battle in the final part of the film. On the other hand, the film includes some excellent humor, primarily provided by the sure to be a crowd favorite K-2SO, a reprogrammed Imperial enforcer droid, voiced by Alan Tudyk. Christians will also notice that the “Force” is emphasized more in this film, particularly by Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen), a blind, but still effective warrior-priest. Several times throughout the film he offers the prayer-like Jedi incantation “I am the Force, the Force is with me”.

Fans of Star Wars will enjoy the many homages to previous films and characters. For example, the planet on which Jyn Erso (Oscar nominee Felicity Jones) is retrieved from the Empire early in the film by the rebel alliance is called Wobani, an anagram for Obi-Wan. In addition, R2D2 and C3P0 have a brief cameo making Anthony Daniels the only actor to appear in all the Star Wars movies so far. And longtime Star Wars fans will be thrilled with a few powerful appearances from Darth Vader, voiced by James Earl Jones.  We both thought we caught a glimpse of Chewbacca during the battle scene.

The film opens with Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), living in a remote area with his wife and young daughter Jyn. Galen was one of the Empire’s star (pun-intended) weapons designers, before retiring to a life of farming. Now, his former boss, Director of Advanced Weapons Research for the Imperial Military, Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) has come for him, needing his help to finish the project they had begun together, the Death Star, a weapon intended to be able to destroy an entire planet. SPOILER ALERT – The young Jyn loses her father and mother, and is largely on her own, though we briefly see Saw Gerrera (Oscar winner Forest Whitaker) check in on her to see that she is safe.

We next see Jyn on Wobani, one of the Empire’s prison planets. She is unexpectedly freed by a team of Rebel Alliance agents led by Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna). The Rebels have become aware of Jyn’s father’s involvement in the Death Star project and hope that Jyn will be able to help them locate him and secure the plans for the weapon. Jyn doesn’t believe that her father would willingly aid the Empire, but she has not seen him since she was a small girl.

The film shows us that there are different factions in the Rebel Alliance. Jyn eventually begins to embrace the Rebel’s cause and recruits a small band of misfits who feel the same as her. In addition to Andor, Imwe and K-2SO, there is Imwe’s best friend, the marksman Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) and former Imperial pilot Bodhi Rook (Golden Globe nominee for The Night Of, Riz Ahmed).

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. The story is relatively easy to follow, the visuals are stunning, we are introduced to some new characters and there are several references to previous Star Wars films. It is still basically a good vs. evil story. Parents need to be aware of the intense battle scenes and the prayer-like incantations by Chirrut Imwe.


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My Movie Review ~ The Accountant

the-accountantThe Accountant, rated R
***

This film is directed by Gavin O’Connor (Jane Got a Gun). The screenplay is by Bill Dubuque (The Judge). It features a strong cast, including two Oscar winners, Ben Affleck (Argo and Good Will Hunting), and J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), and two Oscar nominees Anna Kendrick (Up in The Air), and John Lithgow (Terms of Endearment and The World According to Garp).

The film features a complicated plot with a number of flashbacks and surprises. Ben Affleck portrays Christian Wolff, who is a highly functioning autistic.  His parents break up after disagreeing how he is to be treated. Christian’s controlling military father (Robert C. Traveiler) is extremely hard on the young Christian (played by Seth Lee) and his brother Brax (played as an adult by Jon Bernthal). Christian’s father wants him to be able to defend himself, as he knows he will be picked on throughout his life.

We see a grown-up Christian working as a freelance accountant in an office at a strip mall in Plainfield, Illinois. He is a loner who has incredible abilities with math, and is uncomfortable socially.

Ray King (played by J.K. Simmons) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury Crime Enforcement Division, begins to investigate Christian. He blackmails Marybeth Medina, an analyst played by Cynthia Addai-Robinson to track down Christian.

Christian takes on a legitimate client Living Robotics, led by Lamar Black, played by John Lithgow. He is contacted by Black’s sister Rita Blackburn, (Jean Smart) to track down the $61 million discrepancy found by accountant Dana Cummins (Anna Kendrick), just before the company is to go public. This puts the lives of both Christian and Dana in danger.

The film is rated “R” for a significant amount of violence and adult language, including the abuse of God’s and Jesus’ names. Ben Affleck delivers a strong performance as the violent autistic Christian, and the other cast members give solid performances. The multiple plotlines made this a film that you need to pay close attention to, but I thought there were too many plot holes.


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My Review of the Movie ~ The Meddler

The MeddlerThe Meddler, rated PG-13
**

Oscar winner (for Dead Man Walking), and four-time Oscar nominee Susan Sarandon portrays Marnie and Rose Byrne is her daughter Lori. The film is based on writer/director Lorene Scararia’s real-life experiences with her mother after Lorene’s father died.   Scararia has stated in interviews that the goal was to capture Marnie’s side of the story, and that empathy was a key theme in the film which is set in Los Angeles two years after Marnie’s husband Joe’s death. Joe left her enough money that she doesn’t have to work. Lori is a screenwriter that has relationship issues and is devastated by her break-up with an actor Jacob, played by Jason Ritter.

Marnie just can’t resist meddling in her daughter’s life.   As the film begins we see Marnie constantly calling, texting and dropping by unexpectedly to see Lori. At a time when Marnie really needs Lori, Lori is not very nice to her. But we must remember that each of us go through loss differently.  She needs to set boundaries with Marnie.  Lori loves her Mom, but needs her space as she works through the loss of her father. Both mom and daughter see the same therapist, Diane, played by Amy Landecker.

When Marnie is turned away by her daughter, she seeks to build relationships with others (Freddy, a young man played by Jerrod Carmichael, who works at the Apple Store who helps her and she in turn encourages to go to college; Lori’s best friend, Jillian, played by Cecily Strong, who is a young lesbian mom who desires for the wedding she didn’t have and who needs a babysitter; and a lonely old woman in the hospital). At times she shows her love by spending extraordinary amounts of money, out of place given that she hardly knows the people. Is she trying to buy their friendship?  She also strangely seems to care for these strangers more than her husband’s wonderful Italian family back east, who only want a headstone for Joe, or half of his ashes, neither of which Marnie responds to them about.

Marnie is pursued by two divorced men, Oscar nominee Michael McKean as Mark and Oscar winner (for his outstanding performance in Whiplash) J.K. Simmons as the likeable Zipper, a retired policeman, who also has relationship issues with a daughter. Ironically, even though Marnie craves her daughter’s attention, she is uncomfortable with male attention due to her difficulty dealing with her husband’s loss.

Sarandon is excellent in this role as the meddling mother and the grieving wife, as was J.K. Simmons as the low-key and comfortable-in-his-own-skin Zipper. Moral content issues in the film include the support of the lesbian wedding, sex outside of marriage and a strange comment from Lori about abortion. According to Scararia, in real-life, her mom (the Marnie character) was a person of faith, and that faith helped her through her loss. Unfortunately, the film shows none of Marnie’s faith.  And despite a cast that includes Sarandon and Simmons, the film was pretty slow, and in many ways depicted what John Piper would refer to as a wasted life.


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Movie Review ~ A Hologram for the King

A Hologram for the KingA Hologram for the King
*

In this screen version of Dave Eggers’ book directed and written by Tom Tykwer, Tom Hanks stars as Alan Clay. Alan was once a successful salesman, but things aren’t going so well these days. As a member of Schwinn’s Board of Directors, Alan made the decision to outsource American jobs to China, a decision that didn’t turn out well. He has recently gone through an ugly divorce, and is on his way to Saudi Arabia to try to sell holographic IT systems to the king for a massive new development in the middle of the desert that will include 1.5 million people by 2025. We see the project in various stages of construction with no working going on, but this is never explained to the viewer.

Alan is under heavy pressure from his boss to close the deal, who checks in with him several times a day. We get the idea that the deal is a must for Alan to keep his job. He also needs to make the deal to pay for his daughter’s college education.  Despite being divorce, Alan has a very good relationship with his daughter Kit, played by Tracey Fairaway. She encourages him in the job he is in Saudi Arabia to do, unlike his father who is a discourager.

Unfortunately for Alan, nothing goes right once he gets to Saudi Arabia. He is badly jet lagged, oversleeps every morning, (never setting an alarm – duh!), and repeatedly gets drunk (in a country where alcohol is illegal). Things don’t go much better for Alan and his team as they try to get an audience with the king to make their sales presentation.

Since he oversleeps each morning, Alan needs a driver to get him to the king’s development an hour away. Alexander Black, as Yousef, is a likable driver, who eventually bonds with Alan.  We enjoyed Yousef’s music he played in the car and the beautiful scenes of Saudi Arabia. Yousef, and Muslims in general, are portrayed sympathetically; not as terrorists or as folks that treat women as second-class citizens, but mostly just as ordinary people in this film – though there is a passing reference to public executions that take place in the city Alan is staying in. Muslims are often portrayed praying in this film.

Eventually we realize that Alan is depressed. He develops a medical condition that is meant as a metaphor for his depression. When he seeks medical attention, he runs into Dr. Zahra Hakem (Sarita Choudhury), a rare female physician, and even rarer still is that she is in the presence of a man alone in a Muslim country as she treats Alan.

As the film goes on, we see Alan beginning to gain more confidence.  However, it largely takes place in a slow moving film that doesn’t have much of a plot. There is some humor sprinkled in, but watching the film, I felt I was living through the same depressing nightmare that defined Alan’s life. As a result, I cannot recommend this film to you; instead I’m recommending that you wait for Hanks’ upcoming film entitled Sulley, directed by Clint Eastwood.

Hanks’ performance is fine, but certainly nothing special. The best part of the film is the opening scene in which Hanks talk-sings “Once in a Lifetime” by the Talking Heads.

This is the second collaboration between Hanks and Tykwer, the first being 2012’s Cloud Atlas, a film we did not see. It seems a strange vehicle for Hanks, as it is based on a book that has gotten very mixed reader reviews on Amazon.

The film is rated R for some adult language and unnecessary female nudity.