Hiddleston as the music legend is completely out of his depth. Other than a passing physical resemblance Hiddleston offers none of the charm, depth, or relatability of the musician he plays. He plays Hank as a petulant high school punk, sniveling rather than cavalier, resentful rather than independent. Olsen's Audrey is shrewish, self-serving, and unsympathetic. Both characters as played by the leads are unlikable in the extreme. There is no nuisance to the performances, scenes turn for no explicable reason from cordial to preachy to bludgeoning. None of the magic of the musician is shown, little time is even spent on his composing or artistic process or pursuits save the repeated hammering of Hank's desire to do the Opry. The music performed in the film, frequently bafflingly abridged, is passable but has no energy, it is inert.
The structure and focus of the film are equally confounding. Dates periodically flash but there is virtually no context, build, or through-line. Many major events are only passingly referred to and never shown. What is shown but criminally underdeveloped and almost sophomorically portrayed are Hank's substance abuse and womanizing. All we get of the former is Hiddleston's constant swaying and perspiration and what we get of the latter are a simple litany of encounters. His addiction is not explored and functions only as a melodramatic plot device. Hank's perpetual infidelity is drawn in only the most cursory way and its casualness is demeaning. Director Marc Abraham has claimed he wanted to make a film that "avoided biopic cliches" and "investigated the psychology of Hank Williams" on both counts the film utterly and miserably fails.
Disjointed, flat, pretentious, and completely tone-deaf.
Don't See It.
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