Review of A Hologram for the King (2016) by Ian G — 26 Aug 2016

Another standard middle aged/midlife crisis film from Tom Hanks which outside of Cloud Atlas a few years ago and Bridge of Spies, seem to be the go to type of project for Tom Hanks. In this case he is a down on his luck salesmen who fell from grass after a pitch essentially sunk his company, is dispatched to Saudi Arabia in an attempt to pitch a holographic teleconferencing technology the Royal Family which his has a precarious, brief association with.

In addition to his career wows, his family is just in the process of splitting up due to divorce, and he is desparate to get the finances together to support his daughter going to University and also a possible health issue with a growth on his back which may or may not be cancerous.

For the most part outside of the occasional visual flare and a heart tug or two, the proceedings of Hologram for the King plays out as a travel log for the most part since a lot of films aren't based in Saudi due to I am sure strict laws in regards to such, so it is a cool way to see some of the architecture there or what they do show including some sequences at Mecca.

Also even though its formulaic, once Hanks starts drumming up the connection with his doctor, things start to come to life a bit which is nice if predictable. Average.