Tom Hanks’ latest outing is an intriguing yet slow-moving journey, says Joanna Hoyes...
Director: Paul Greengrass
Starring: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel, Elizabeth Marvel
Running time: 118 minutes
There’s something so reliable and comforting about a Tom Hanks film. Whether he’s landing on the moon, playing Disney’s founder or sending Meg Ryan mail, you can be sure that with Hanks at the helm, it will be at least a watchable, if not a remarkable, endeavour.
News of the World - adapted from the novel by Paulette Jiles - is Hanks’ latest outing and is just the former: watchable but somewhat unremarkable. Journeying through lawless Texas from town to town on horseback to read the latest news to pubs full of people, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is a weary ex-Infantryman trying to build a new life for himself following the bloodshed and unrest of the Civil War five years previous. This may be Hanks’ first Western (excluding his turn as cowboy Woody in Toy Story) but it’s a character and a genre he sits very comfortably in given that he’s played many a Captain before now and has the reserved yet authoritative presence for this kind of role.
On his travels, Captain Kidd comes across a young girl called Johanna, an orphan without any English who has been raised by Native Americans having been taken from her parents as an infant. She is all alone in the world with nothing but a fiery spirit and a sketchy past who needs to be taken home to the only distant family she has left. Ten-year-old (at the time of filming) Helena Zengel has few lines throughout the film but somehow manages to shoulder an astonishing depth of emotion through her facial expressions alone, some of which, at times, will break your heart. She has a similar look and attitude to a young Saoirse Ronan; it will be interesting to see where the young actor’s promising career leads.
The narrative doesn’t truly begin to flow until the final twenty minutes
The pair travel through the desert encountering bandits, radical ex-soldiers and a brutal sandstorm to try to get to a place that young Johanna can finally call home. The relationship between the two is a very slow burn but is a delightful by-product of a treacherous journey and is the only real thing holding this film together. The father/daughter bond which builds between them feels very genuine and we see two lost souls rekindle a sense of family in one another.
Beautifully shot in Santa Fe, New Mexico by Paul Greengrass, (who directed Hanks in Captain Phillips), the barren setting lends itself to the long and arduous journey the two main characters must make. At times, however, even the majestic scenery isn’t enough to get this film going. It is, for the most part, as slow moving as the horse pulling Hanks’ cart. There is an almost formulaic feel to each hurdle they face and the narrative doesn’t truly begin to flow until the final twenty minutes.
News of the World is intriguing and visually appealing enough to keep you watching until the emotionally fulfilling end however parts of it are as dry as the desert landscape.
Did you know? Helena Zengel barely knew who Tom Hanks was before shooting began. In one interview she gave, she expressed her knowledge of him as a fellow actor but had no idea of the scope of his success and celebrity. Zengel was only two years old when Toy Story 3 was released.
News of the World is available now on Netflix
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