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Title: I Saw the Light (2015)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Tom Hiddleston | ... | Hank Williams | |
| Elizabeth Olsen | ... | Audrey Williams | |
| Bradley Whitford | ... | Fred Rose | |
| Cherry Jones | ... | Lillie Williams | |
| Maddie Hasson | ... | Billie Jean Jones | |
| Wrenn Schmidt | ... | Bobbie Jett | |
| David Krumholtz | ... | James Dolan | |
| Josh Pais | ... | Dore Schary | |
 |
Wesley Robert Langlois | ... | Don Helms - Steel |
| Joshua Brady | ... | Sammy Pruett - Guitar | |
| Casey Bond | ... | Jerry Rivers - Fiddle | |
|
|
Michael Rinne | ... | Lum York - Bass |
| Will Beinbrink | ... | Jim Denny | |
| Todd Barnett | ... | Gas Station Attendant (as Steven Todd Barnett) | |
| Richard Jackson | ... | Boyette | |
The story of the country-western singer Hank Williams, who in his brief life created one of the greatest bodies of work in American music. The film chronicles his rise to fame and its tragic effect on his health and personal life.
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I've got to hand it to director Mark Abraham. All the things he got right in "I Saw The Light" were far more impactful than things he missed. After reading other reviews I thought I was going to come away from the movie unsatisfied, but instead it was the opposite.
I really like that this movie was a more subdued and intimate look at Hank Williams. It's not fast paced or a high frequency drama. It's an intimate peak into the personal side of Hank during the last 5-6 years of his life with singing performances speckled throughout. The acting performances are fantastic especially Tom Hiddleston who transforms himself into Hank beautifully and does a fine job singing Hank's songs.
Many of the complaints of the film were from people who wanted to see the historical Hank Williams film. The whole boilerplate biopic from childhood to all the milestones of his rise to stardom and the impact he had on American music. People wanted to know why Hank was the way he was and did the things he did. Yet conflicted, talented artists tend to always defy being wrapped up into nice, little 120 minute boxes with definitive explanations supplied.
With that in mind Abraham did the next best thing and what was always his intention, created and showed a personal experience of Hank. To have the audience feel what it was like to be in his life. In that endeavor the director got it right many times over. By casting Hiddleston to play such a complex and conflicted person, it humanizes Hank and makes him relatable. Tom's performance allows people to have an endearing empathy and compassion for Hank and see this troubled cultural hero from a personal perspective.
Although there's a lot the director left out or only made reference to, the main problem with the film is in the weaving of all the many relationships and chapters of Hank's tumultuous life into a cohesive harmony. Still "I Saw The Light" delivers an insightful and engaging experience of the great country star that we have never seen before and with a masterly produced soundtrack that sets the tone and carries you through this little beauty of a film.