A Hologram for the King Review
By David Kempler
A Fading Hologram
In its very first scene, we see Alan Clay (Tom Hanks) singing the lyrics - with a few alterations - of The Talking Heads "Once In a Lifetime" as the gist of the song displays in the background. I loved it. Unfortunately, it is arguably the high point of Tom Tykwer's "A Hologram for the King", which premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.
The point of the song and the film is that we live our lives in search of beautiful cars, houses, and wives, but that even after we acquire these "prizes", we question the point of it all. It can end up as nothing more than drudgery that we chase because of the expectations of society. With the premise laid out, it is time to find out if Clay can break free from these bonds.
Clay is a middle-aged, fairly successful salesman who is divorced. He's not particularly happy about everything, but he pushes on, because that is what he thinks he should be doing. He is on his way to Saudi Arabia to lead a team looking to sell a newly developed holographic telepresence system. It allows someone in a different geographic location to appear as a hologram where the presentation is being demonstrated. The goal is to give a demo of it to the King of Saudi Arabia in hopes of making an enormous sale to him.
His job is on the line with this project. He is feeling enormous pressure to land the lucrative contract, with his boss constantly calling him asking him how it is going. When he arrives at the work site, he is confronted by the conditions facing his team that had previously arrived. They are working in a tent that sometimes has air conditioning and never has Wi-Fi. This leaves them with no way to get ready for the demo. Clay's journey is to rectify these issues, but it's what he learns along that journey that matters.
The obstacles to his quest are many, foremost of which are the cultural differences between doing business in America and in Saudi Arabia. He is endlessly frustrated by the process and he experiences physical illness and severe anxieties as a result. A somewhat unexpected person walks into his life and might be the impetus that is needed to save him.
Everything about "A Hologram for the King" is forced and contrived. We watch Clay's life take turns for better and worse, but we never really care how it will turn out for him. It's merely something to stare at, much like a hologram.
