We liked this story about a man whose livelihood depends upon his selling holographic meeting technology to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Tom Hanks (blogged in Bridge of Spies) plays his usual charming, optimistic, yet self-deprecating character and the lovely Sarita Choudhury (made her debut in Mississippi Masala (1991), then I liked her in House of the Spirits (1993), her small part in Admission, and 19 episodes of Homeland as Mira Berenson) brings spice as a Saudi doctor.
Alexander Black, in his second role ever, is funny and steady as Yousef.
Director/screenwriter/composer Tom Tykwer (good work on the excellent Run Lola Run (1998), a segment of Paris, je t'aime (2006), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)--we didn't see Cloud Atlas in 2012) gives us plenty of comedy in the script he adapted from the novel by Dave Eggars (most recently in these pages for Promised Land).
The trailer and the movie open with an MTV-style video of Hanks performing the Talking Heads 1980 tune Once in a Lifetime (here's the original and here's the trailer). Many exteriors were shot in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Morocco. A few more were filmed in Boston and New York and the rest was shot in Tykwer's native Germany.
Though Tykwer has a website with a music section, this movie's soundtrack is omitted. A playlist is available on youtube, however, and it's nice. There are lots of songs, too, listed here.
Still playing on one screen locally, its ratings, 67% critics and 80% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, aren't great, and I expect it will be gone after Thursday night. Jack and I think most Hanks fans will like it as much as we did ten days ago.
Missed another one. I'll look for it on DirecTV.
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