A Hologram for the King

Parental Rating: R

Contains: Language    Nudity    Sex    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opens April 22, 2016

Runs 97 minutes

Tom Hanks is Alan Clay, an American Businessman in Saudi Arabia. He is on a mission to sell his company's new technology to the Saudi King. This technology takes teleconferencing to the next level by actually putting the other person in the room through a virtual hologram. And, Alan's career is riding on this sale. However, getting an actual meeting with the King proves to be the biggest challenge. As Alan spends his days in the desert being chauffered by Yousef (Alexander Black) he comes to appreciate the culture and the beauty of the country. When an unusual medical condition sends him to the Doctor, he is drawn to the mysterious Dr. Zahra (Sarita Choudhury). Will Alan make the sale? Can there be a relationship between two people from vastly different cultures? Maybe everyone is really more alike than we think.

The Husband and I actually liked this movie. It hasn't been very well-received by the critics but we thought it was pretty good. I liked the way it presented the different cultures. There were stereotypes but then there were great characters that went against a lot of what we might think of Saudi Arabia and its people. The one flaw seemed to be that the movie couldn't decide exactly what it wanted to be. A romance? A comedy? A thoughtful drama? It had elements of everything. Despite that, I thought Tom Hanks and Sarita Choudhury had great chemistry and did a nice job portraying two people feeling out the beginnings of a relationship even in the face of their very different cultures. We liked it. If you enjoy seeing other cultures on film, this might be for you. Go see it.

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