news of the world paulette jiles reviews

News of the World is a fairly conventional western in terms of costuming and production design. However, News of the World works best when it largely avoids this heavyhanded commentary and focuses more on the journey that Kidd and Johanna undertake across the nation.

There are points where this becomes particularly heavy-handed, with Kidd forced to read propaganda pushed by a tinpot despot in a particularly grotesque corner of the nation. There are mercenaries and opportunists scavenging through the aftermath of this conflict, hoping to turn a quick profit from the carnage. The inhabitants of the southern states resent the Union for imposing their cultural values, for insisting that the losers of the Civil War renounce slavery and accept their defeat.

Indeed, News of the World presents a vision of America divided. It’s hard not to long for the certainty of a figure like Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (or even just Tom Hanks) to discern truth and to present – to borrow a phrase from an earlier Hanks vehicle – “just the facts.” Indeed, Kidd’s profession practically invites comparisons to the current moment, when so much news is just misinformation thrown out via social media, telling people what they want to hear. News of the World is hardly subtle about being a broad metaphor for contemporary America. News of the World is perhaps a little too episodic and too uneven for its own good, occasionally feeling like a more mainstream counterpart to something like The Sisters Brothers, but it works largely thanks to the central performances of Tom Hanks and his co-star Helena Zengel. In some ways, this feels like the movie’s most telling update to that classic western formula, replacing John Wayne’s true grit with Tom Hanks’ hanksian decency.

There’s a surprising and endearing warmth to News of the World, which largely comes from casting Tom Hanks in the lead role. Of course, with her escort killed and the Union forces scattered trying to manage Reconstruction, Kidd finds himself tasked with caring for the young woman and ferrying her across the nation to reunite her with her mother’s extended family. She was recently recovered, and the army is attempting to send her back to her last surviving relatives. She was taken from her parents when she was very young and raised by the Kiowa tribe. Kidd determines that the young girl is named Johanna.

News of the world paulette jiles reviews