NEWS OF THE WORLD – Review

As this endless year of 2020 mercifully nears its last days, does it feel like you’ve been cooped up for an eternity (save for those quick supply runs)? Are you aching to travel to those “wide open spaces”? Well, then you may want to take a virtual “vacay” via your local multiplex (if it’s not shuttered). This big flick opening on the holiday will whisk you away to such a spot, but you’ll also do a bit of backward time-travelin’, say 150 years or so. No need for concern about the trek, since a familiar film face is your guide, none other than our ole’ “movie buddy” Tom Hanks, who is entering somewhat (for him) uncharted territory. Although he’s voiced a famous animated “old-timey” sheriff (ya’ know, Woody…” You’re ma’ favorite deputy!”), he’s never starred in an “honest-to-gosh” Western. So, let’s saddle up as Mr. H spreads the NEWS OF THE WORLD.

As the story starts, it is 1870, just a few years after the Civil War. A former soldier of the North, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Hanks) now makes his living traveling from one desolate town to the next, unrolling his prized newspapers from the Eastern cities (and one or two from England), and reading the current events to the gathered townsfolk (who drop a few coins into his hat). For most of these tiny villages without news offices, on the edge of hostile Indian Territory, he’s their only contact with the outside world. Leaving Wichita Springs, working his way back to his Texas home, Kidd comes upon the bloody aftermath of an Indian attack. He’s stunned to discover one survivor hiding in the brush. It’s a young blonde girl around ten years of age whose birth name is Johanna (Helena Zengel). She was being returned to relatives in Castroville, Texas after being taken from the Kiowa tribe, who had slaughtered her family and kidnapped her as a toddler. Kidd learns this from a slain official’s papers as she speaks no English. Somehow she trusts him and he takes her to the nearest town with an army base. The officers there inform Kidd that the regional “Indian agent” is gone for months, and they cannot hold her. Kidd then takes her to a relative that runs a makeshift school, but Johanna tries to run away and rejoin her tribe. Kidd then makes a momentous decision. He buys a wagon for his horse, and will personally take her to her only family. The long journey involves many dangers, from former rebels wanting to buy (or just take) the girl, to sandstorms, and an isolated “buffalo-skinning” town run by a vicious despot. Facing these challenges strengthens a bond between the weary captain and the traumatized child, but what will happen at the end of the winding trail?

Captain Kidd (not the pirate) proves to be another showcase role for the dependable and often surprising Mr. Hanks. Yes, he’s the hero again, but a haunted one with lowered half-lidded eyes reflecting the horrors he saw first-hand only a few years earlier. Although the story owes a great deal to the iconic Ford film THE SEARCHERS, Kidd is really the opposite of Wayne’s Ethan, as he believes fervently that Johanna can return to her family roots. He truly thinks that she is worth fighting for, despite his trepidation at the odds (in the film’s best sequence he’s almost hopelessly outnumbered). Although we’re not sure of the home Kidd journeys too, Hanks shows us the sorrow that he tries to mask. It’s a wonder that Hanks hasn’t tackled the Western genre before. Here’s hoping he keeps those boots handy for another ride. But it’s not just his story. The film also benefits from the smart casting of Zengel as the conflicted youngster. Johanna begins as a wild, almost feral child who has no use for Kidd’s world. We hear the anguish in her cries as she pleads for a wandering group of Kiowas to take her back, right after Kidd thinks he is done with her. Slowly and with great subtlety we see her accept Kidd, particularly in her body language as she starts to let her “guard down”. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for this exceptional talent. Several familiar faces interact with the wandering duo. Ray McKinnon and Mare Winningham are superb as the couple that just can’t handle the angry girl. Elizabeth Marvel is a tough but passionate hotel owner while her husband Bill Camp is Kidd’s former boss and a caring concerned friend. Of course, the trail has to include some cactus in the former of two formidable villains. Christopher Hagan is a snarling dangerous egomaniac as the sinister town leader Durand and Michael Angelo Covino is a leering stubborn menace (think of Dern’s Duke-killer in THE COWBOYS) as the single-minded Almay.

Though best known for his contemporary thrillers (most of the Bourne flicks) director Paul Greengrass proves to be quite the cinematic spawn of Ford and Hawks. He sets aside his tough, tight hand-held camera for sweeping shots of the near-endless New Mexico (the main location site) vistas (no doubt putting those drones to good use). But he can still zero in on the principals as in the harrowing dust storm scene. Then Greengrass will use his action flick skill set for the film’s best set-piece, the nail-biting attack on Kidd and Johanna by Almay and his men on the perilous rocky terrain. Even a wagon ride can turn into a fight for life as Kidd loses control of the horses (guessing the steeds had CGI doubles). The film benefits from Greengrass collaborating on the screen adaptation of Paulette Giles’ novel with Luke Davies. They form a top-notch team along with cinematographer Dariusz Wolski and score composer James Newton Howard. It’s a worthy reteaming of Greengrass and Hanks after 2013’s CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (the end physical exam should’ve earned Hanks his third Oscar). NEWS OF THE WORLD is indeed good news for fans of both men, and film (especially Westerns) lovers everywhere.

3.5 Out of 4

NEWS OF THE WORLD opens in theatres everywhere on Christmas Day