News of the World review: Tom Hanks helps an orphaned young man in Paul Greengrass’s slow, old-fashioned western

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Set five years after the Civil War, Hanks plays Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a gray-haired veteran who now earns his living traveling from city to city, amusing crowds by reading and summarizing newspaper articles highlighting stories from around the world.

Recognizing that his audience lacks the time or ability, think of him as a prime news aggregator, drawn from a rich storytelling tradition. Kidd presents it as a way to “get rid of our troubles”, although the persistent division and mental wounds of the war – including his own – are very small below the surface.

In the closest example, Kidd works in a camp where the business mogul who presides over the place wants him to lie to his audience to keep them more flexible. Think “fake news”, only without a digital megaphone.

If it sounds a little unpleasant like the US, as it is 150 years later, it’s not an accident. Greengrass (from “United 93” and Jason Bourne’s films, which previously directed Hanks in “Captain Phillips”) has a history of slipping social and political commentary into his films.

However, Kidd is unprepared when he finds Johanna (Helena Zengel), a young orphaned immigrant who was raised by Kiowa and speaks only their language. Efforts to get the army’s help to find her a home prove futile, at which point he takes on the task of shepherding Johanna back to her surviving relatives, unsure of how she will be received.

Adapted from Paulette Jiles’s novel, their journey moves at an unstoppable pace, along an almost wicked path in which they encounter kindness and cruelty – although the latter is in greater abundance, including those who would exploit the child for his own purposes.

Hanks offers a quality show for everyone for which he is known – his second this year, after the war film “Greyhound” – as a character who cares for both pain and regret. Its inherent decency makes “World News” work as much as it works, and the nature of the search resonates with themes from classic westerns, including “Seekers.”

For fans of the genre, that old-fashioned feeling is a kind of delicacy. That being said, the promotional campaign does the film no favors – especially for those who associate Greengrass with kinetic action scenes – since one or two sequences are not accepted, those who expect the kind of adrenaline that the ads would suggest they are apt to be disappointed. .

Overall, “World News” is a solid film, even if it is not spectacular, presenting a familiar story against an interesting historical background. It simply does not offer the much needed escape from their troubles to a contemporary audience that Kidd promises to his crowds.

“World News” premieres on December 25 in some theaters. PG-13 is evaluated.

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