Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour, 58 minutes
Director: Paul Greengrass
Quick Impressions:
We finally got a new TV this weekend. Our beloved ten-year-old plasma screen has been treating us to pink popcorn as it warms up for quite a while now. The new OLED my husband picked out was supposed to come two Saturdays ago, but the polar vortex substantially delayed its delivery. Needless to say, its picture is much crisper than what we’re used to. Saturday night, we were all so excited to try it out that we decided to watch a new(ish) movie everyone would enjoy. (This always excludes our five-year-old who does not enjoy any movies. According to him the only good movies are Sonic the Hedgehog and Fantasia. All other movies “are trash,” so he doesn’t get a vote.) I Care a Lot really stressed everybody out last Saturday, so this weekend, we went for a film that looked a little more crowd-pleasing, News of the World, the Paul Greengrass helmed Western starring Tom Hanks and German child actress Helena Zengel, a Golden Globe and SAG nominee for her performance here. Everybody liked it.
The Good:
News of the World is one of those charming, old-fashioned, character driven movies that doesn’t rely on plot twists and surprises to hold the audience’s attention. In fact, we size up the situation pretty quickly once stars Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel meet. Everyone watching at our house knew exactly where this story was headed. Any other ending, in fact, would have been a crushing (and unlikely) disappointment.
These days, it’s honestly kind of refreshing to get a story featuring characters who are immediately sympathetic and only become more and more sympathetic and likeable as the film goes on.
In News of the World, Tom Hanks plays a hero. It’s safe to root for him, in just the same way that my mom always knew it was safe to root for John Wayne. He is not even a complicated hero. He thinks he is, perhaps, but no matter what kind of inner demons his Captain Kidd is wrestling with, he always behaves in a forthright, dependable, and trustworthy manner.
It’s a good thing that he’s a hero, too, because, as it turns out, postbellum Texas is overrun with villains. Around every corner lurks another rapist, murderer, sex-trafficker, thief, con-artist, corrupt Union Soldier…and I mean, that’s only between Wichita Falls and Dallas! Just wait till you get to the Hill Country!
We live near Austin ourselves, so we spent the entire movie trying (in vain) to recognize any sort of natural landmark, only to learn in the end credits that the movie was filmed in Santa Fe, New Mexico. (Even that makes this seem like a classic Western. Texas is never Texas if you’re John Wayne. If classic Westerns are to be believed, Texas can be found somewhere between the Grand Canyon and Disneyland.)
At any rate, Captain Kidd has to transport this little girl Joahanna (Zengel) all the way to “San Antonio,” (aka Santa Fe?), so as you can imagine, all sorts of armed reprobates stand in their way. Some of them seem like characters ripped right from the pages of Huckleberry Finn. In fact, in some ways, the movie reminds me a great deal of Huckleberry Finn, except instead of traveling down the river, the captain and Johanna are following the road.
Also a hazard are the Kiowa. Granted, they come off much better than the many seedy former Confederates and corrupt Union troops swarming around everywhere. Plus Johanna has been raised for much of her life by a Kiowa family and considers herself Kiowa. She speaks the language (at first exclusively), and she knows the Kiowa way of life, the customs, the religious and philosophical practices. Yet the Kiowa remain a threat, something we (and Kidd) can never completely forget because Johanna only lived with a Kiowa family in the first place because members of the tribe kidnapped her and murdered the rest of her (original, German) family.
Texas itself poses a threat, too (even though it isn’t really Texas). I’m not sure if you’ve ever traveled from Wichita Falls to San Antonio, but in the summer, the sun would be a life-threatening danger, and even in the winter, the elements would be rough.
So this is the kind of story with an immediate hook. Two sympathetic characters are placed in a very stressful situation, and the movie is kind enough to the audience not to make us question whom we should be trusting. As Johanna gradually learns, the person to be trusted (pretty much absolutely) is Captain Kidd. And the person not to trust is everyone else (except for the woman who owns the inn and speaks Kiowa played by Elizabeth Marvel. She seems okay).
Hanks gives a very strong lead performance (the sort of performance that will probably be totally overlooked because he’s not doing anything showy). I found it almost remarkable how easy it is for the audience to trust him.
Meanwhile relative newcomer Zengel makes the movie. It’s no wonder that she’s Globe and SAG nominated. I expect her to get an Oscar nomination, too. Johanna has survived tremendous trauma in her short life. For someone so young, Zengel conveys the effects of Johanna’s past very well. A big part of what makes her so captivating to watch, though, is how clearly she telegraphs Johanna’s innocence, her natural, childlike qualities. Now, obviously, the actress is a child, so some of this should come naturally to her (although it’s pretty difficult to act natural on camera. Have you ever tried it? Not everyone can). What makes Zengel’s performance special is that she’s able to show us Johanna’s trauma and Johanna’s innocence simultaneously.
Of course, it really, really helps a lot that the person Zengel shares the screen with most of the time is Tom Hanks. Her performance is fantastic, but a big part of what makes it work is him. The seemingly natural rapport the two gradually develop happens because Hanks is a gifted, seasoned, experienced, generous actor. Zengel wouldn’t be able to steal scenes and have all these amazing moments if Hanks weren’t there providing a scene for her to steal.
This movie was probably released in theaters (instead of being pushed) because somebody thought it had some Oscar chances (and box office potential). Now Hanks probably isn’t going to get nominated, but his worthy work should help to get Zengel noticed and nominated. And even though Hanks is good, not getting a nod for this performance feels okay. It’s not an egregious injustice like the year he failed to get even a nomination for Best Actor for that astonishing turn in Captain Phillips. That was the most outrageous Oscar snub I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. (In fact, I’m really only mentioning that Hanks won’t get nominated this year as an excuse to complain about the Captain Phillips snub again.) This year there’s a lot of worthy competition. As long as Chadwick Boseman continues (deservedly) winning Best Actor awards through Oscar night, I’m satisfied. But I do think it’s worth noting that Zengel would never have these wonderful moments were Hanks not there setting them up for her, quietly carrying the movie.
News of the World features some good supporting performances, too, though no minor character sticks around for too long. I most remember Michael Angelo Covino as the excessively villainous Almay, Fred Hechinger as the helpful but always slightly unnerving John Calley, and Thomas Francis Murphy as Mr. Farley (the one who seems like he escaped from a lost chapter of Huckleberry Finn).
Even though we experienced some technical difficulties while watching (which I’ll explain later), I found the film’s cinematography impressive and memorable. Several shots stick in my mind. The landscapes aren’t Texas, but they’re captivating, nonetheless. Director of photography Dariusz Wolski deserves some recognition.
I also liked the film’s musical themes and score by James Howard Newton.
And speaking of themes, I was quite taken with News of the World‘s emphasis on the power and value of storytelling, the necessity of telling stories. Before this, I never knew that traveling from town to town reading aloud from newspapers was a job. (Maybe it wasn’t. Perhaps Kidd is a unique character, his profession created for the novel on which the film is based. But the occupation seems plausible to me and feels real now that I’ve seen the movie. I’ll have to do some research.)
Best Scene/Best Action Sequence:
Fairly early in the film we get an extended shoot out in the hills that’s far more satisfying to watch than I expected. (In an unusually bloodthirsty moment for me, I clapped and cheered at the end of this fight.) For one thing, Captain Kidd and Johanna’s relationship begins to evolve here. The trust starts to form. A bond begins to develop. Hanks and Zengel have excellent chemistry, and watching them run, strategize, and fight together is thoroughly engrossing. For another, the antagonist in this sequence is such an out-and-out villain. What he wants is so wicked. And that he has arbitrarily decided on this on a whim and will go to such lengths to achieve it only makes him more evil in the audience’s eyes. And then, also, the action is extraordinarily engaging and fun to watch. The sequence gets additional points near its big finish for reminding me of a similar moment near the end of Key Largo.
Best Scene Visually:
As I’ve said, the movie is full of gorgeous vistas and sometimes novel camera angles (such as when Hanks stares down at a moving wagon wheel). But I think the massive, terrifying, screen-spanning dust storm steals the show.
Runner-Up Best Scene:
As far as I’m concerned, the shoot out in the hills that I’ve already mentioned is the movie’s best scene. But also good are two back-to-back moments showing Kidd’s entanglement with the menacing Mr. Farley and the resolution of this conflict.
Most Oscar-Worthy Moment, Helena Zengel:
When Johanna wanders off the road to explore a now desolate cabin, Zengel reveals something long hidden inside Johanna. I hope she’s able to pull off an Oscar nomination. She has so many great moments. The language lesson that concludes with an unexpected burst of German is also excellent.
The Negatives:
As I said, News of the World is extremely predictable. What happens at the end may surprise Captain Kidd (who is obviously going through a crisis and trying to figure things out), but it does not for one minute surprise any of us. It’s hard to fault the movie too much, though, because while the ending is not in any way surprising, it is also in just about every way satisfying. Life is stressful enough these days! Sometimes it’s nice to get engaged in a story that will lead you to vicarious emotional fulfillment.
I’ve heard that this film makes a couple of major departures from the novel on which it’s based, but I haven’t read the book, so I can’t comment on that. I also can’t comment on the accuracy of its portrayal of the South immediately after the Civil War, or its portrayal of the Kiowa. I simply do not know enough about such things myself to say anything useful.
For me, the biggest problem with my viewing experience arose from a technical issue that was my fault, not the movie’s.
I have to admit that having a new TV made it hard for me to evaluate the visuals in News of the World at first. The picture looked strange to me, like we were watching a behind-the-scenes special instead of a feature film. I was positive the TV was to blame. The picture looked more like a video taped BBC production from the 1980s, or even real life people standing in front of us putting on a show. “This looks like a video game,” my daughter decided, and I agreed.
All the motion seemed too quick. We actually checked to make sure the speed wasn’t accidentally set to 1.5x. The uncanny clarity and bursts of speed almost made me nauseated and gave me a headache. My husband pointed out that the shaky cam seemed to worsen the issue. He was right about that. (And Greengrass movies usually feature tons of shaky cam.) The strangeness wasn’t as noticeable in the rare moments of steady cam or in instances when the characters themselves held still or moved slowly.
Later my husband discovered that this is an issue lots of people have with OLED TVs. Apparently, it’s called “soap opera effect” and has to do with the refresh rate. There’s a setting that fixes it. (Weirdly, it only seems to cause a problem during movies. The non-film-clip portions of The Golden Globes looked totally normal. It’s really strange that a live awards show looks like TV as usual, but a big budget Hollywood movie looks like our teenage son playing Red Dead Redemption.)
Obviously my issues adjusting to a new TV aren’t News of the World’s fault. In fact, it is a testament to the strength of the film’s storytelling that I was finally able to get past an issue that deeply bothered me. But this does mean I find myself at a loss when it comes to critiquing the film’s cinematography. Ordinarily, I’m not a huge fan of shaky cam (though I will admit that most of Greengrass’s films feature tons of chaotic immediacy which does justify the use of the technique). The problem here is that I can’t say whether this film’s frequent use of shaky cam worked or not. I was always so grateful when we looked out at the horizon, or Johanna sat motionless in her blanket. So I think the cinematography is good, even Oscar-worthy. But if it turns out that some moments look as weird when watched anywhere as they did on my TV, then I’ll have to revise my opinion.
My only other wish for News of the World is that it had taken its theme of the importance of storytelling a bit further. I like the idea. I want more of that, and I want it more thoroughly explored.
Overall:
News of the World is a Western where the protagonist is an actual hero, and the villains are equally easy to spot. The ending is pretty predictable. But so what? This is the kind of movie that offers distraction from real life woes and gives us the satisfying conclusion we all want. Tom Hanks gives a good performance, as always. New Mexico is a bit miscast as Texas, but it’s shot so beautifully that it’s hard to mind too much. And Helena Zengel is outstanding as Johanna, a child longing for home. If you follow awards shows, keep an eye on her.