You’d think that
Walk Hard might have driven a spike through the heart of “ponderous biopics about tortured musicians” as a sub-genre, yet here we are. Writer/director Marc Abraham (
Flash of Genius) bypasses a cradle-to-grave structure for the story of country music legend Hank Williams (Tom Hiddleston), opening in 1953 with his marriage at the age of 23 to first wife Audrey (Elizabeth Olsen), and following his brief career from honky-tonk bar gigs to Grand Ole Opry star. Predictable music-bio conflicts ensue (substance abuse, marital woes), sprinkled with performances of classic songs like “Move It On Over,” Hey Good Lookin’” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” What’s missing is an actual point to any of it, beyond running through the bullet points of Williams’ professional and personal life, and allowing Hiddleston to show off a quite serviceable physical and vocal transformation. A late sequence involving a journalist interviewing Williams hints at some of the issues underlying his facility with heartbreaking lyrics, but a story about a great but doomed artist needs to have more to say than, “This artist was great; too bad that he was doomed.”
By
Scott Renshaw