I SAW THE LIGHT
SPECIAL PRESENTATION D: Marc Abraham. U.S. 123 min. Sep 11, 6 pm Ryerson Sep 12 10 am, Winter Garden. See listings. Rating: NN
I Saw The Light opens with a sequence in which Tom Hiddleston’s Hank Williams performs Cold, Cold Heart a cappella to a small audience. It’s eerie and affecting, and instantly removes any question as to whether Hiddleston can pull off the role.
And moments later, writer/director Abraham (Flash Of Genius) proceeds to squander his leading man by shuffling him and his fellow actors through a series of banal, clichéd glimpses of Williams’s short, messy life. How bad is it? It’s like watching someone remake Walk Hard without understanding Jake Kasdan’s movie was spoofing the genre.
Totally absent is any sense of the pleading at the heart of all of Williams’s songs. It’s always disappointing when a biopic fails to capture an artist, but I Saw The Light doesn’t even capture the art.
