A Hologram for the King

I enjoyed the simplicity of the film. You got a story about a guy living his life. He has regret, he has hope, hes just trying to do whats best.

This drama will be appreciated mainly by people who had to leave their country and work in the middle east, where money is great but the culture is shockingly different.

This movie is a 5 that got a 6 because of Tom Hanks.

For once they got some of the details of the Arab World. Not the best story in my opinion but an interesting one.

A Hologram for the King is about the businessman Alan Clay, who leaves for Saudi Arabia to pitch a new idea with his team, in order to earn enough money to pay for his daughter’s college. On his journey in Saudi Arabia Alan meets a lot of interesting people and get tested on his patience multiple times.

So, do you ever watch a movie and you keep trying to find your opinion about it but you just don’t know? Well, that’s what I’m feeling right now. The acting in the movie was pretty good and some parts were rather funny. I just don’t know how to feel about the storyline I guess. It’s a bummer really because otherwise this would have been a pretty great movie!

It was interesting to see the difference between the Arabian and American culture. There is obviously quite a big difference. So it was fun to see how they handled it.

I really enjoyed Alexander Black his character Yousef.

:-)

Tom Hanks plays a fish-out-of-water businessman in this tale of culture shock, self-doubt and discovery. Set amidst the flat desert plains of Saudi Arabia, Hanks aims to mend his financial struggles by selling an absentee king on a gimmicky hologram-driven teleconferencing solution. Along the way, he encounters no shortage of roadblocks, be they personal, bureaucratic, cultural or medical, and eventually recognizes it as a growth opportunity.

This is a conflicted picture, much in the same way our leading man plays a conflicted individual. Nailing down a steady tone seems difficult; the film opens with a loose, cartoonish musical number, then settles into a fast-paced corporate shuffle before cutting that loose and becoming a warm-hearted buddy picture and, finally, a contemplative romance. All this in a very trim, quick ninety minutes.

Social norms are a steady focus, shining a flashlight on the immense gap between everyday life as an American and as a Saudi, but in the end it feels like those are only superficial, easily brushed aside to make way for a happy ending. That climax leaves us with dozens of loose ends, half-heartedly explored threads that are inspected and discarded like an inattentive child digging through his toybox. It all feels very loose and light, like we've read a summary but not the entire story. There's a compelling yarn buried somewhere within A Hologram for the King, but we only skim the surface. Interesting and original but quite limited.

Some have complained that not a lot happens in the movie but that doesn't matter, the movie isn't aspiring to be a film with a lot of action or drama. The main character also struggles with the fact that not a lot happens as he waits patiently and impatiently for the king to show up for a pre-arranged presentation. It is difficult to say what the film is about though. Its not quite a culture clash drama/comedy. Its almost about a man finding himself but we don't know enough about him to see how he changes throughout the film. This is a real curio of a film but an enjoyable one nevertheless.

the main reason most watched this is to get a feel of what life is in Saudi Arabia.

Unfortunately, it based on an idea of what life in saudi arabia is like. why dont you cut a ticket and visit the place.
Americans companies have been conducting business in Saudi since the 1930s. the Saudis are known for their hospitality and generosity, especially in the case of a company representative presenting to the king. decadent embassy party!

they captured some things here and there, but
It would of been great if they actually visited Saudi Arabia before making this film.
Or changed the setting to a fictional nation.

This movie is somewhere in no mans land. Not funny enough to be a real comedy and not serious enough to be a real drama. Take out Tom Hanks and there is little left.

The only thing I really liked about this movie (other than the obviously great Tom Hanks who gives his everything to every role he does), is how authentic Saudi Arabia and the culture felt. But it's one of the few strong points of this odd movie, unfortunately, as the storyline is so weird (and I like weird) and at the same time kind of really boring, that you don't really know what to feel about it when it's finished. It's such a "meh" type of plot with little to no laughs (at least from me), that all this movie relies on is the mesmerizing Saudi Arabian sands, Tom Hanks' ability to make anything look doable and Sarita Choudhury's beauty.