A Hologram for the King follows Alan Clay (Tom Hanks), a businessman with a major failure on his back who gets a second chance working for a big IT company. He travels to Saudi Arabia to pitch a high-tech teleconferencing system to the king. What is supposed to be a straightforward job turns out to be a lot more complicated, as Alan and his team are subjected to difficult conditions with no guarantees of even seeing the king in the foreseeable future. In the meantime, Alan befriends his driver, Yousef (Alexander Black), who becomes his guide through the absurdities of the country. With his help, Alan explores the country and himself, confronting his anxieties all along the way.
It would likely help to know that the film is based on a novel. It might help explain the general aimlessness of this narrative, which mainly has the protagonist wandering around Saudi Arabia with no concrete goals. He discovers the strangeness that lurks just beneath the meticulously swept surface of Saudi society. He goes to a wild party at the Danish embassy. He meets a person that lives in an unfinished luxury condominium. He deals with a people who don't seem to adhere to any schedule. He runs off to a mountain village and goes wolf hunting. And so on.
This type of wandering tends to work better in the space of a novel. It's easier in prose to tie disparate events together, a strongly written voice allowing a personal narrative to coalesce around seemingly random happenings. This never quite happens in this movie, which doesn't really do much more than serve as a travelogue for the mysterious rituals and practices that make life in Saudi Arabia possible. Within this very narrow context, the film is mildly compelling. But soon enough, the demands of narrative filmmaking kick in, and it's harder to buy into what the movie is attempting to do.
The movie eventually comes to settle on romance as its primary motivator. In the back end, it puts focus on the relationship that grows between him and his doctor. And it is awkward and sweet in a pretty unique way, with Alan still navigating unfamiliar cultural norms. But it still feels undercooked, the film unable to invest enough in this pairing to justify the developments that come at the end. It feels like it's using romance as a crutch, a bit of easy, familiar language to lead the audience into profound realizations that it doesn't quite earn.
On the way to telling this story, the film employs hints of visual strangeness that all but disappear by the midpoint. The film's best asset, of course, is Tom Hanks. This role is perfect for the veteran actor, giving him the opportunity to use a variety of his strengths as a thespian. He is allowed to be both charming and uneasy, confident of his abilities, but unsure of his place. And through it all, he displays a curiosity that is infinitely relatable. He gets strong support from Alexander Black and Sarita Choudhury, who are tasked with putting a human face on this alien culture.
A Hologram for the King has good individual moments, scenes that take advantage of the uniqueness of its setting, that offer fresh perspectives on a place that might seem shrouded in mystery even in this age of globalization. But the breadth of this story doesn’t quite fit within the limits of a feature film. This is clearly a story that needs more space, one that requires more insight into the inner being of the main character than cinema can provide.
My Rating:
