Country singer and songwriter Hank Willims achieves success, but has ongoing battles with alcoholism, substance abuse, womanising, his wife, and disease.
Tom Hiddleston stars as Williams, and in him lies the film's main strength and also weakness. It is a good performance, with Hiddleston showing considerable musical chops (the number against which the opening titles are shown is simply stunning), but at its heart is Hiddleston's innate likability. Willims had to be likable on stage and on radio, but I strongly suspect – and the events of the film bear it out – that he wasn't that likable when out of the public eye, yet he always seems likable here, whether drunk, womanising or generally being a bad husband. For that reason, I'm not sure that we saw a fair portrait of the artist.
The period detail is good, the music is presented well, and Elizabeth Olsen as wife Audrey is (as usual) wonderful. There were times when the dialogue was either lost in the mix or incomprehensible to a non-Southerner, but not to the extent that I couldn't follow it.
It's an enjoyable film (especially if you don't know much about Williams, as I didn't), but it may not be as true as one might wish.
Tom Hiddleston stars as Williams, and in him lies the film's main strength and also weakness. It is a good performance, with Hiddleston showing considerable musical chops (the number against which the opening titles are shown is simply stunning), but at its heart is Hiddleston's innate likability. Willims had to be likable on stage and on radio, but I strongly suspect – and the events of the film bear it out – that he wasn't that likable when out of the public eye, yet he always seems likable here, whether drunk, womanising or generally being a bad husband. For that reason, I'm not sure that we saw a fair portrait of the artist.
The period detail is good, the music is presented well, and Elizabeth Olsen as wife Audrey is (as usual) wonderful. There were times when the dialogue was either lost in the mix or incomprehensible to a non-Southerner, but not to the extent that I couldn't follow it.
It's an enjoyable film (especially if you don't know much about Williams, as I didn't), but it may not be as true as one might wish.