NEWS OF THE WORLD (2020)

With a story centered on a twice orphaned girl in the post-Civil War Old West (Immigrant-German parents lost in an attack by the Kiowa tribe/adopted Native American family killed by unknowns), and the odyssey taken by her self-anointed protector thru violence & physical obstacles to bring her to an Aunt & Uncle, her only remaining family, it’s a wonder this Paul Greengrass film doesn’t come across as a woke version of John Ford's THE SEARCHERS/'56.  But if he neatly avoids that pitfall, there are plenty others to trap him in a film that errs from the start with a tone so sober, so somber it seems to have no place to go.  Odd when Tom Hanks' character is supposed to be an itinerant entertainer, traveling town to town as a storytelling messenger of joy & wonder, bringing News of the World to Texas pioneers when he finds himself stuck with that lost blonde ‘wild child.’  Too earnest by half, with a level of violence hard to imagine Hanks surviving over the four years he’s been wandering with his solo act since last seeing his wife.  Add on Greengrass’s penchant for jittery camera work, cinematographer Dariusz Wolski’s severe earth-toned pallette and the crusty, wise-beyond-her-years voice of little girl lost Helena Zengel (once she starts to talk) and the film should be unbearable.  Fortunately, Greengrass drops a lot of the earnest crap along the route and the bonding tropes of child & surrogate dad kick in to reasonable effect.  Plus, always fun to watch Hanks latch on to another actor’s  persona when playing an abstraction rather than a real character.  So, just as Hanks glommed onto Walter Matthau for CATCH ME IF YOU CAN/’02, and Nino Manfredi in THE TERMINAL/’04 (LINK: https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/06/terminal-2004.html), here Gene Hackman gets the treatment.  A decade after Hackman retired, nice to see a reasonable facsimile back on screen.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Since our previous post was on pioneer silent film director John H. Collins, we’ve jumped forward 106 years.  A new record!

DOUBLE-BILL: Some of the wilderness wandering and danger, especially during a sandstorm, brings Kurosawa’s underappreciated DERSU UZALA/’75 to mind as an unlikely Double-Bill.