I Saw the Light (2016)

CinemaSerf July 23, 2024

★ 6/10

In theory this had loads to recommend it. A young man who captivated the USA with his music, an handsome and charismatically flawed gent who lived his life to the full, philandered, cheated and drank... How, then, did Marc Abraham manage to turn all that into a stodgy television movie? The ever easy on the eye Tom Hiddleston takes the title role and does precisely nothing with it. His mimicry of the style of performing - that slightly chicken-strutting jig he did whilst singing, works well enough but otherwise this is a shallow and lacklustre characterisation. Williams could never have been called a loyal man and the women who featured prominently here - wife Audrey (Elisabeth Olsen), Bobbie (Wrenn Schmidt) and Billie Jean (Maddie Hasson) have precious little to work with to add much depth to this puddle of a biopic. It has a go at creating a documentary feel to it, incorporating some mo…

JPRetana June 14, 2026

I Saw the Light (2015) opens with what appears to be archival footage of a record executive explaining why he liked Hank Williams: Hank didn’t care whether people liked him or not. An interesting observation, perhaps, but it raises a question the film never answers: if Hank didn’t care whether people liked him, why should we care whether this guy or anyone else did or didn’t? After the opening credits, we’re introduced to Hank Williams (Tom Hiddleston) and Audrey Williams (Elizabeth Olsen) on their wedding day. Both actors feel fundamentally miscast. Hiddleston occasionally has to remind us that Hank was supposed to be a young man — at one point claiming that “the last time I checked,” he was 23. Yeah, but how long ago was that? The bigger problem is that it’s difficult to see Hank and Audrey at all. The Marvel baggage is impossible to ignore even for non-Marvel fa…