'A Hologram for the King' - Long Live Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks has made an outstanding career by making perfect choices of the roles he plays even despite a few of his misfires ('Joe vs the Volcano' or 'Bon of the Vanities'). He is the quintessential every man, our generations Spencer Tracy, totally unassuming and completely approachable, he is the guy you want to be friends with.
In 'Hologram for the King' Hanks is nearly perfect as Alan Clay a former Board Member for Schwinn Bicycles who has to take a job in sales at an IT company after Schwinn moves to Chine (by his own doing mind you). Just emerging from a bitter divorce, racked with guilt about his daughter skipping a year of college due to lack of funds, Alan heads to Saudi Arabia to try and close the deal of a lifetime with the King of that nation on holographic conference technology.
The technology is stunning, yet the King is hardly ever there and Alan and his team have less than hospitable conditions to work with. Alan not only struggles with jet lag, the non appearance of the King but also with a host of anxieties as well as insecurities that manifest themselves in a number of strange ways including a huge cyst on his back.
While Alan and his team wait for the King to make an appearance, he meets various people, including Yousef (Alexander Black), a young “limo” driver who used to study in Alabama and who is terrified that his married girlfriend’s husband is going to car bomb him (making for some very funny moments); Hanne (Sidse Babett Knudsen), a Danish consultant working in the King’s industrial park who attempts to seduce Alan; and Zahra (Sarita Choudhury), the doctor Alan sees about his back and with whom he shares an undeniable attraction despite their vastly different customs. All of them have an impact on Alan and help the pace of the story along, despite some of the more formulaic moments.
'A Hologram for the King' is a classic fish out of water tail that only Hanks could have pulled off; in any other actors hands, this would have been a C at very best. In the very capable hands of Tom Hanks, however, this is a solid B+ movie that was undeniably enjoyable and touching.