Here is our review of the new western from the director of The Bourne Ultimatum.
News of the World represents a reunion of actor Tom Hanks with director Paul Greengrass, working together for the first time since 2013’s Captain Phillips. That eight-year-old movie is also the last time that it felt like Hanks gave a truly great performance, and Greengrass directed a truly great movie, so hopes were high that the two of them working together might help bring out the best in each other.
Let us temper those expectations right now by saying that News of the World is not a great movie, but it is a good one. Hanks doesn’t give a memorable performance, but he does deliver an extremely comfortable one. And this isn’t anywhere near Greengrass’ best work, but we’re hopeful it is a bit of a career reset, fixing the trajectory of the quality of his output.
The somewhat messy set-up kicks off with Civil War veteran Captain Kidd (Hanks), now a travelling bard of sorts, going town-to-town to read the newspapers at town halls across the country as a means of distraction for the locals. On one of his journeys, he happens to cross paths with Johanna (Helena Zengel), a young girl who was taken in by a Native American tribe after her parents were killed, and now she’s left alone once again when her adoptive parents are killed by southern soldiers.
With none of the local authorities being particularly helpful, Kidd decides to take it upon himself to safely bring Johanna to her surviving aunt and uncle several states over, a destination that she isn’t particularly keen on getting to.
The rest of the movie is a very episodic one, with Kidd still stopping off in towns along the way to make money as a news reader, and each town delivering the movie a new subplot, from former lovers to abusive mayors to potential kidnappers.
Once the movie finds its groove of being an odd-pairing road-trip, the whole thing feels like sliding into a warm bath, so gentle and relaxing and with no major surprises in store. Even when the movie perks up with shoot-outs and horse chases, you never really feel like there is going to be too much trouble, because you know Hanks is going to get the job done.
His pairing with Zengel, playing a character who doesn’t speak a word of English, makes for an interesting one, and the 12-year-old delivers a great performance, once the movie settles on what it actually wants her to be, initially flitting back-and-forth between almost feral or simply misunderstood.
Unlike some recent entries into the western genre, Greengrass doesn’t seem particularly fussed about reinventing the wheel here, instead letting the (mostly) understated performances and the (always) gorgeous scenery do most of the heavy lifting. There is nothing here we haven’t seen done a million times before, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There is a reason we order the same dish from the same takeaway each weekend, after all. In short, your Dad will absolutely love this.
News of the World is available to watch on Netflix from Wednesday, 10 February.
Clip via Netflix
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