Rent A Hologram for the King (2016)
3.0 of 5 from 293 ratings
1h 34min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Tom Hanks is Alan Clay, a man at a cross-roads in his life, who has to journey halfway across the world in a last-ditch attempt to stave off bankruptcy, pay his daughter's college tuition and finally do something great. Based on the best-selling novel by Dave Eggers, 'A Hologram for the King' is a heart-warming fish-out-of-water story and a moving portrait of the transcendent power of love.
- Actors:
- Tom Hanks, Alexander Black, Sarita Choudhury, Sidse babett Knudsen, Tracey Fairaway, Jane Perry, Tom Skerritt, Michael Baral, Lewis Rainer, Alexander Molkenthin, Xara Eich, David Menkin, Christy Meyer, Megan Maczko, Ben Whishaw, Eric Meyers, Khalid Laith, Amira El Sayed, Waleed Elgadi, Dhaffer L'Abidine
- Directors:
- Tom Tykwer
- Producers:
- Stefan Arndt, Gary Goetzman, Arcadiy Golubovich, Tim O'Hair, Uwe Schott
- Writers:
- Dave Eggers, Tom Tykwer
- Studio:
- Icon
- Genres:
- Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Collections:
- 10 Films to Watch if You Like: Licorice Pizza, Films to Watch If You Like..., Getting to Know :Tom Hanks
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 19/09/2016
- Run Time:
- 98 minutes
- Languages:
- English Dolby Digital 2.0, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.40:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Making of 'A Hologram for the King'
- Image Gallery
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Reviews (4) of A Hologram for the King
Disappointing movie which mixes genres and is good in parts only - A Hologram for the King review by PV
This starts well - it's the usual fish out of water storyline wherein the Tom Hanks character - an IT manager - is sent by his employer to give a presentation in Saudi Arabia. Lots of fun ensues, with a great taxi driver character and some sharp dialogue and funny lines. The contradictions of this dictatorships are explored well, without any hectoring or arrogant American approach.
And so it goes on. But it all starts to go wrong when an odd health condition the Hanks character has means he has to go and see a doctor. S female doctor (this would NOT happen in Saudi by the way - they keep the sexes so separate there that the government censors even black out all pictures of women in English text books!)
The final third of the film is so awful it's almost unwatchable - it all becomes a Mills and Boon Arab fantasy in reverse (think Rudolph Valentino's The Sheikh with gender role reversal).
Of course, this may not be the fault of the director or writer because this is based on a novel by Dave Eggers.
Still, a director or film writer should have knows this would never work - if the film has stuck to the 'fish out of water' story, it would and could have been a funny satire on Saudi Arabia.
Sadly, it goes all al-Mills and al-Boon and I lost the will to live by the end.
The 2 stars are for the great first half.
1 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Excellent first 2 mins. - A Hologram for the King review by NC
Bit of a mess after half way. At the end what happened to the Dutch lady, the team?? More importantly, the Charles Grodin lookalike driver, with whom Tom has a rapport, and who a lot of the film revolves around, just evaporates, and we spin around to the lady doctor. The whole point of being in Saudi is lost, Tom looks younger than has done of late, but agent got wrong film for him, or editor left it all on cutting room floor.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Not for me.. - A Hologram for the King review by CP Customer
Not for me was bored silly trying to watch to the end, stupid storyline. I love Tom hanks so was very disappointed.
0 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Critic review
A Hologram for the King review by Adrijan Arsovski - Cinema Paradiso
A Hologram for the King is a fun film that overstays its welcome somewhere across the half-point mark, when its innocent plot steps into preachy territory carrying all pre-established weight onto further events that [SPOILER ALERT] I will not spoil. The clash with Arabic culture not only helps Tom Hanks’ mannerisms, but it applauds his effort to innocently and discreetly propagate whatever his agenda allows – and fortunately for us this time it’s a satirical reflection of days long gone by in a life of a single human being, who also happens to be a failed salesman lost somewhere in Saudi Arabia’s vast deserts.
This time we see Tom Tykwer at the helm steering a ship that very much differs from his previous works like Run Lola Run or Perfume: The Story of a Murderer for example. His flair to give soul to everything he touches is present here as well, and to a certain degree it adds complexity to a somewhat straightforward movie-going experience. That is not to say that Tykwer has lost his touch – it’s rather his touch has changed for the ‘weirder’ and the ‘more ‘preachy.
Lots of moviegoers have compared A Hologram for the King with Sofia Coppola’s ‘accidental’ masterpiece Lost in Translation, and one can say they’re not very far off. In actuality, they’ve struck a chord – only this time A Hologram for the King shared nearly all flaws that plagued the 2003 Bill Murray feature, and little to zero of its perks.
In actuality, A Hologram for the King tries to directly lift parts of Lost in Translation in the form of a mid-life crisis, a chronotope that is unfamiliar to the main protagonist (which he must overcome and defeat) and meeting a woman who becomes a romantic interest within said time and space.
Also, at time it feels like the director developed the movie’s premise and stopped right there and then. “A failed salesman goes to Saudi Arabia to sell his product in a final effort to overcome his existential angst of ending up spending the rest of his life alone”. The twist is that Tom Hanks’ character meets someone and you have the whole movie wrapped up in a mere sentence or two. Has Tywker lost his touch? Hardly so, but then again: it all boils down to plot and proper storytelling, which A Hologram for the King severely lacks thereof.
One thing worth mentioning over and over again is Tom Hanks’ acting. After all, he’s the friendly baker, the charming ice-cream vendor, the everyday man who acts as a tribune conveying the thoughts that all think, but few have gotten the courage to actually speak. Given this fact, he executes his role perfectly and is charming as he always was.
A Hologram for the King comes off slow, copies parts from another feature and hits you across the head with its preachy message until all you can see is coarse sand that gets everywhere. However, Tywker’s originality paired with Hanks’ charisma is pushing this one just across the edge and for this fact alone I personally would recommend you give it a try.