News Of The World (2020)

By: Mike Ward on Thursday, December 24

PG-13 Running Time: 118 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • Tom Hanks and Paul Greengrass make a formidable pair and News of the World finds both of them stepping out of their comfort zone a bit, at the top of their game.

  • Though it’s more drama than action film, Hanks steers us, and young co-star Helena Zengel, through an insightful film exploring trust in others and institutions.

  • Can Tom Hanks just read our news all the time?

NO

  • Fans of traditional Westerns may balk at this; the action sequences are few, though compelling, and some of the encounters feel a but episodic.

  • If you are not a fan of the Western genre, News of the World may lack appeal - even with Hanks leading the way.

  • Some have criticized the film for lacking edge and downplaying the danger of the world the movie is set in.


OUR REVIEW

Westerns may have been the only genre Tom Hanks had left on his punch card when he agreed to work with director Paul Greengrass on adapting Paulette Jiles’ 2016 novel, News of the World, for the big screen. Unfortunately, with COVID-19 closing thousands of theaters around the country in the fall of 2020, the film’s footprint will be significantly smaller than anticipated, until it lands on VOD in mid-January 2021. With that said, Hanks and Greengrass again prove to make a formidable pair, having previously worked together on the exceptional Captain Phillips in 2013.

Set approximately five years following the Civil War, Hanks plays Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a storyteller and orator who traverses back and forth across Texas sharing stories from newspapers, pamphlets, or other sources to captive and paying audiences. Kidd is basically a live news anchor decades before such a thing could have ever existed. His exaggerated flourishes and raconteurial delivery make him a main event attraction whenever he arrives in town.

At one of his stops, which often seem fraught with danger, Kidd crosses paths with a 10-year-old German girl, Johanna (Helena Zengel). Alone, guarded, and resistant to anyone she meets, it takes time for Kidd to learn more about the girl’s situation. Abducted by Kiowa people at a young age, her birth parents slain at the time, Johanna’s Kiowa parents were also recently murdered. Kidd finds her after a trip to her aunt and uncle’s house ends in disruption.

Though she has nowhere to go and cannot speak English, Kidd realizes that Johanna wants to stay with the Kiowa. Recognizing that is not possible, he agrees to deliver her to her family near San Antonio. As the two get to know each other and build a bond, we recognize they each are at a crossroads. For Kidd, his itinerant work keeps him running away from an emotional past he cannot fully reconcile. For Johanna, she is essentially feral. Without Kidd’s help, what will she do or where will she go?

Greengrass’ films typically move at a much different clip than News of the World does. Here, he dials his energy back to better orient viewers to the setting, time, and place of 1870s Texas. Character-focused, Hanks helps cultivate a great, largely unspoken performance from Zengel, who first turned some heads with her work in the 2019 German film System Crasher. She embodies a cherubic exterior with a steely, aggressive interior borne from distrust, trauma, and uncertainty of her near and immediate future.

The aggressors arrive in stanzas as Kidd and Johanna make their trek. The threats pose unique challenges and difficulties abound with runaway horses, a creaky carriage, and, in a thrilling sequence, a cat-and-mouse shootout on a ragged hillside, where expertly navigating caves and rocks can be the difference between life and death.

News of the World also arrives at a time when we live in the age of “Fake News” and journalism is as distrusted as ever before. For the settlements and towns Kidd appears in, his word is gospel, and the facts are believed. Principled and morally steadfast in the service he offers, parallels between Kidd’s work and the way with which we are quick to process, evaluate, and discredit or champion news sources is a striking takeaway from the world depicted here.

Hanks, the actor, nurtures his co-star through the film and exudes a fatherly and protective kindness that you cannot help but appreciate as a viewer. Clearly pained from things unspoken, Kidd’s instincts soon takeover and Johanna becomes much more than a delivery. Set against the rolling landscapes of farms and ranches, settlements and towns, the cinematography of Dariusz Wolski does a fantastic job of juxtaposing the desolation of loneliness with the up-close interactions Kidd experiences in the towns he visits. The world feels both vast and small, and each reaction feels proper.

Greengrass’ screenplay with Luke Davies (Lion) can feel episodic at times, with James Newton Howard’s experience in working with modern Western films an effective musical addition to the project, helping create mood and atmosphere which counterbalances some of the more somber moments in the storytelling.

If the film feels inert at times, or if the rise and fall of the dramatic moments seem predictable, Greengrass’ skills as a suspenseful, action-driven filmmaker make the moments of conflict and confrontation mean that much more. News of the World is a thoughtful film which finds Hanks and Greengrass again seeking to find the good among those trying to find their meaning and purpose in the world.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel, Michael Covino, Fred Hechinger, Neil Sandilands, Thomas Francis Murphy, Mare Winningham, Elizabeth Marvel, Chukwudi Iwuji, Bill Camp, Ray McKinnon

Director: Paul Greengrass
Written by: Paul Greengrass, Luke Davies
Adapted from the novel “News of the World” by Paulette Jiles
Release Date: December 25, 2020
Universal Pictures