A Hologram For The King * * *
I wonder if people who have read the book on which this film is based, felt more or less satisfied than the uninformed viewer?
Knowing the story they could probably join the dots.
But if, like me, you haven't read it you might feel the story is a bit disjointed.
I just feel something was missing - and those who had read the book might be aware of some truth about the main character and his situation that we are given glimpses of but don't really appreciate. (His internal dialogue perhaps?)
I am not sure how this would have come across without the brilliance of Tom Hanks who seems capable of taking any role and turning it into something special.
Alan (Tom Hanks) is on a last ditch mission. He is estranged from his wife and family, working for an impatient software company and has a conscience plagued by a previous failed business venture.
He has been sent to Saudi Arabia where it has been arranged for him to present a software featuring holograms to the King. As Arabian people traditionally like to do business by hand shakes and eye-balling it is thought the hologram would be an excellent compromise in this IT age.
As much as anything I enjoyed this film as a travelogue as we see both the old and the new of Saudi Arabia. It is fascinating on that level. (Equally fascinating was how people who live there get along without a drink. They don't. They find means. Of course they do.)
Traveling each day to a huge building site for a meeting that is constantly deferred, he is chaperoned by a westernized driver who drives an old American car with a dreadful collection of 70's rock bands on his tape deck.
A suspicious growth upon his back causes Alan to seek out a doctor who turns out to be female (highly unusual) and divorced (incredibly rare in Saudi Arabia) and as interested in Alan as he is in her.
So in the end it's a sweet romance of a middle aged couple set in a land that is horrendously oppressive but conveniently adaptive for the main characters. But they are both so likable you are happy to go with it.
The new buildings in the desert are both impressive and bombastic. The culture clash is funny as are the wild Embassy parties where the booze flows freely. But from what I know you'd probably come unstuck if you went to Saudi Arabia in the hope of a similar experience.
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| No deal is worth this abstinence! |
But if, like me, you haven't read it you might feel the story is a bit disjointed.
I just feel something was missing - and those who had read the book might be aware of some truth about the main character and his situation that we are given glimpses of but don't really appreciate. (His internal dialogue perhaps?)
I am not sure how this would have come across without the brilliance of Tom Hanks who seems capable of taking any role and turning it into something special.
Alan (Tom Hanks) is on a last ditch mission. He is estranged from his wife and family, working for an impatient software company and has a conscience plagued by a previous failed business venture.
He has been sent to Saudi Arabia where it has been arranged for him to present a software featuring holograms to the King. As Arabian people traditionally like to do business by hand shakes and eye-balling it is thought the hologram would be an excellent compromise in this IT age.
As much as anything I enjoyed this film as a travelogue as we see both the old and the new of Saudi Arabia. It is fascinating on that level. (Equally fascinating was how people who live there get along without a drink. They don't. They find means. Of course they do.)
Traveling each day to a huge building site for a meeting that is constantly deferred, he is chaperoned by a westernized driver who drives an old American car with a dreadful collection of 70's rock bands on his tape deck.
A suspicious growth upon his back causes Alan to seek out a doctor who turns out to be female (highly unusual) and divorced (incredibly rare in Saudi Arabia) and as interested in Alan as he is in her.
So in the end it's a sweet romance of a middle aged couple set in a land that is horrendously oppressive but conveniently adaptive for the main characters. But they are both so likable you are happy to go with it.
The new buildings in the desert are both impressive and bombastic. The culture clash is funny as are the wild Embassy parties where the booze flows freely. But from what I know you'd probably come unstuck if you went to Saudi Arabia in the hope of a similar experience.
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