There is only one good reason (well, maybe two) to sit through the long drawn out and rather tedious biopic of the very short life of singer/songwriter Hank Williams, and that is because of its star Tim Hiddleston. He puts in a powerhouse of a performance and is nothing less than magnetic in this overly long 2 hour movie making the screen literally come alive as he became the very troubled singer.
The story starts with Williams, still a struggling musician, whose only gig is playing live on a local radio station at 5 am every morning. He has just married Audrey his recently divorced girlfriend who will have to fight for his attention with his very controlling mother who he still lives with, and the liquor which he seems to love more than life itself. Williams is desperate to get a gig playing at the Grand Old Opry and he eventually does so after his cover version of “Lovesick Blues” hits No. 1 on the country chart, and then after this hits starts to subsequently flow from his pen.
The movie seems to skip large portions of the story and the sudden rise to fame is never really accounted for, nor is the rapid discovery of his spina bifida after a few bad back scenes. Divorced from Audrey who is still angry with him for never ever promoting her own singing career despite the fact she had very little musicality, Williams is still being bossed around by his mother even though he has a new very young wife. The story however focused more on his addictions to both drink and prescription drugs and how they led to be him being fired from the Grand Old Opry, rather than of the fact that he was one of the most influential and important country performers ever, and who managed to have 30 Billboard Top Ten hits before he died just 29 years old (and 5 more posthumously)
Hiddleston singing all the songs himself is completely electrifying as Williams on stage playing with his band, and we now know that he definitely has another career awaiting him in the wings if he ever wanted to stop acting!
The second reason to stay to the very end of the movie is the performance of Elisabeth Olson as Audrey Williams who plays the frustrated Southern gal to perfection. Rose, William’s mother is played by veteran stage actress Cherry Jones who sadly didn’t get much of a part to sink her teeth into.
