it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I don't think I've ever caught a movie on opening day, but I couldn't resist fighting the crowd to see "I Saw The Light" on opening night. Wasn't much crowd to fight. I was the first to purchase tickets for the 7:15 show at the Warren. The reviews haven't been good, but I want to start out and say if you are a fan of Hank Williams, go see the movie. I read all the books and watch all the movies. I appreciate any attempt to keep the music of Hank alive and on the forefront. The last few days, there has been a lot of talk about Hank and this latest film. Sixty-three years after his death, and we are still talking about him and the media is putting out stories on this latest biopic about the greatest hillbilly singer ever. Over sixty studio recordings of which over 30 charted. No one else has done that! It was a short career, but will probably require a mini-series to actually tell the story to meet our expectations. Tom Hiddleston's performance is commendable. He has the look and is a great actor. He also had the benefit of working with country legend Rodney Crowell to prepare for the film. With today's recording technology, the music will be perfect. However, Tom fails to capture that "tear" (as in crying tear) in his voice that Hank had. He didn't appear to be about to lose control of his emotions when singing "Lovesick Blues" or "Cold Cold Heart". The music is great, with some of the best sidemen in Nashville contributing. Tom's movement while singing seemed a bit awkward. It seemed instead of bouncing up and down, like Hank did from exerting the emotion in his music, Tom had a choreographed circular motion. However, he looked like Hank. I became immediately jealous of his perfect "Hank" nose (which makes mine look like Jamie Farr). I give Rodney an "A" for his production of the music. The movie tends to jump around all of the dark characteristics of Hank without fully exploring them. These "dark" areas haunted Hank during about 5% of his time of stardom (in my opinion) while the other 95% was great music and good times (albeit in pain). While the Colin Escott autobiography is considered one of the best, other books by band members Jerry Rivers and Don Helms give a more accurate allocation of the fun Hank vs the dark Hank. The film missed an opportunity to create an epic moment during Hank's opry debut when he reportedly performed numerous encores of Lovesick Blues (and I've heard first hand reports from Martha White, who happens to be my Mom, who was there that night). I'm not a director of any sorts, but I would have used the title song performance of "La Bamba" as my example of creating such an epic moment. I think they also missed an opportunity to tie in the hospital scene of Hank bringing Audrey roses resulting in his writing Cold Cold Heart. And why not some drama surrounding Lilly boarding a pregnant Bobbie Jett and Billie Jean at the same time? Or the drama of the three way fight between Lilly, Billie Jean, and Audrey after Hank is dead, resulting in Lilly and Audrey "tag teaming" against Billie Jean. Or the birth of Bobbie's baby, Cathy, just days after Hank's funeral with Bobbie turning over custody to Lilly before moving to California? I didn't see any glaring inaccuracies, probably due to Colin Escott being an advisor. They give a disclaimer at the end of changing some timelines for dramatization, but none immediately stood out to me (possibly leaving out The Willis Brothers as the first band he recorded with on Sterling instead of Red Foley's band?). The wardrobe, instruments, amps, and cars were fun to watch in the film along with the vintage scenes from the opry. Audrey's (Elizabeth Olsen) vocals were very close to real, in my recollection of her recordings, so I'll give Elizabeth an A also. I'm not a professional movie critic, but if I were directing it, I would have added a "National Lampoon" ending like Animal House and Stripes where a short bio tells what happened to each character after Hank's death. Toby Marshall, Audrey, Bobbie's baby, Bocephus, and Billie Jean are stories in themselves. Again, please go see the movie. Maybe the movie's success will inspire other artists or even a mini-series (I'll nominate Jason Petty to play Hank and maybe he will let me play Big Bill Lister or George Morgan). Or better yet, go buy Colin's book, and Jerry's and Don's and check out Brian Turpen's books. For what it's worth, that's my review. Couple more things. Tom's version of the Luke The Drifter recitation was very good. He did better at mimicking Hank's vocal intonations on that number than he did with the regular speaking role. Also, another interesting scene that I would have added would have been Hank's dealings with Jack Ruby in Dallas (and using his alias, Herman P. Willis to avoid him).

Tom Hiddelston portrays Hank Sr spot on. He had the difficult task of singing like the most iconic voice in country music history,in my opinion, Hank Williams and was spot on. The other movie based on Hank that I have seen Your Cheatin Heart(1964) was way more lame and inaccurate than this one. The singing in that one was done by Hank Williams Jr and badly lip synced by George Hamilton. I was raised on Hank Williams music by my father and I believe he would have enjoyed this portrayal. And he told me and I have heard Audrey Williams sing. Elizabeth Olsen singing was much better than Audrey's, just saying. Tom did an excellent job of playing this role. Many people think this movie was awful, but they need to see Your Cheatin Heart (1964) and they will really appreciate this movie. Mr. Hiddelston shouldn't be dismissed because he plays Loki in MCU. He has talent and I believe many should give this movie another chance.

I am very disappointed by this movie. I gave it 5 stars because of the performances and production values, which were both very good. Tom Hiddleston, of which I am a fan, delivers a great performance, as he usually does, and it was a pleasure to hear him sing. He seems to have put a lot of effort to put himself into the character, and I salute that. Elisabeth Olsen, as Audrey Williams, is also excellent.However, the movie itself is extremely bland. Even a film based on real life events needs to have a story arc in order to engage the viewers. There's factual, and then there's boring. There was no story in this movie, just (sometimes very) short sequences from Williams' life in chronological order. The first half of the movie was particularly jarring, as we moved from one event to another, without time to feel the impact of one scene before the next arrived. I'm not calling for melodrama, but this first half was as engaging as a Wikipedia page. It did get slightly better in the second half.For a musical biopic, there was a surprising lack of focus on music. Sure, we were shown musical performances, but we weren't shown a lot of context around them, making them seem more decorative than part of the story told. Maybe the film was made only for aficionados who already know everything about the country & western music business from the 40's? I doubt it. My biggest disappointment is that, apart from making me listen to beautiful songs, this movie completely failed to show me how important Hank Williams is in the history of music. If I had never heard about him (and before this year, I had never heard about him), I would be baffled as to why they felt it was important to make a movie about him.I could understand their choice to focus more on Williams' personal life, if they had made it interesting to me. But the movie is as unemotional as they could have made it. The direction is so detached that I sometimes felt like I was watching some sort of existential comedy, a la Coen brothers. Maybe I'm slightly exaggerating, but I did laugh at some scenes that I don't feel were supposed to be funny. I could not be invested emotionally at all, with the exception of a very few scenes. I really blame the direction here, because the actors did give emotional performances. It just seemed that the director didn't want us to feel any empathy for anyone.

I am a fan of Tom Hiddleston and a big fan of Hank Williams – so this is one I very much looked forward to. It is from director Marc Abraham and he has gone for a very personal slice of the great man's life. We meet Williams when he is playing live gigs for a few dollars on the local radio stations being driven by his mom and drinking like a sailor on shore leave. We follow him through his tumultuous relationship with his wife Audrey (Elizabeth Olsen) and his attempts to fulfil his dream by getting on the stage of the 'Grand Ol Opry'. There are also the songs and it should be noted that Hiddleston did all the singing himself – either to pre recorded tapes of himself or live to camera. Check out 'Your Cheatin' Heart' it drips with the raw emotion and heart breaking fragility that was the true trade mark of Williams and is what – I feel- means that Country and Western is as vital today as it has ever been. The film though will not be to everyone's liking as it does not use the traditional milestones on the journey of his life and the music could have been more to the fore - or indeed less if that is your thing. I have given it time to sink in and am appreciating it more now that I have had time to think about its impact and message. The one thing that is certain is that it is very much a tribute and was made with love and for that it gets a big thumbs up.