directed by Paul Greengrass
written by Paul Greengrass, Luke Davies
Today's review is of the kind of movie I used to thoroughly enjoy in theaters, back when that was still a thing. Directed by famed Bourne-franchise helmer Paul Greengrass and starring acting legend Tom Hanks, News of the World is a timely, taut, and surprisingly sweet if slightly predictable story about the ties that bind us all.
The year is 1870, just five years after the conclusion of the American Civil War, and Hanks plays Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a former Captain in the Confederate Army whose current livelihood is wandering from town to town, readings newspapers to the townsfolk for a small fee, a sort of precursor to today's news anchorman. In his travels, he comes across the body of a murdered black soldier killed in a hate crime, and hiding nearby, his very much-alive young charge, a young girl (Helena Zengel) whose papers identify her as a German immigrant Johanna Leonberger but who apparently speaks only the native American language Kiowa. After asking around, Kidd learns that she was taken from a Kiowa family that the U.S. army had killed, who in turn had killed her family of German settlers and taken her, leaving the poor girl twice orphaned. Kidd decides to take her to the only family she has left, who live a good distance away from where he found her. As a result the two of them take a long perilous trip that sees them running into child traffickers, a small town autocrat and some very nasty weather and through it all, Kidd comes to ask himself what he really values in this world.
For someone who established his career making gritty, contemporary action thrillers like the Jason Bourne movies or even his first collaboration with Hanks, 2013's Captain Phillips, Greengrass really seems at home with this more contemplative, less frenetic form of storytelling, which is equal parts action and drama.
I gotta say: I really enjoyed this one. It's completely different from the kind of film I'm used to seeing from Greengrass, but it was a compelling watch nonetheless. Hanks is in his usual top form, but the real revelation here is Helena Zengel as the sometimes feral, always compelling Johanna, who has taken on the name Cicada and spends most of the film speaking in Kiowa a language the actress had to phonetically learn.
It's a simple story and one, like I said, that tends to be a little predictable at times, but the way Greengrass and his actors bring it to life is what makes it a special viewing experience. I could tell this was a film meant to be seen on the big screen.
Oddly enough, the film has something in common with another well-known Tom Hanks film, the animated Christmas-themed film The Polar Express, in which a character played by Hanks transports a child from one place to another over the course of the film and encounters one peril after another. The similarities end there, of course, but it was amusing to think of the comparison.
This one's worth a watch, for sure.
9/10
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