Movie review: ‘A Hologram for the King’ starring Tom Hanks

Someday, in the not-too-distant future, a writing teacher will hold up a copy of the novel A Hologram for the King by acclaimed author Dave Eggers and use it as Exhibit A as why not every book, no matter how beloved, should be turned in a movie.

While Hologram on paper is considered a classic in some quarters, Hologram on film is a riot of missed opportunities and warring ambitions. Starring Tom Hanks and directed and written by Tom Tykwer (Cloud Atlas, Run Lola Run), it veers from dark comedy to drama to buddy movie to romance without being particularly successful at any of them.

Hanks plays Alan Clay, the head salesman at a failing tech firm. The company has a new hologram program that could revolutionize the presentation and corporate-meeting industry, as it can virtually put people and objects in the same room from anywhere on the globe.

Through an old contact, Clay gets a meeting with the king of Saudi Arabia. If he can land this contract, he’s golden. Of course, once he gets there, getting in to see the king is not so easy.

Along the way, he becomes buddies with his wise-cracking driver, Yousef (Alexander Black), falls in love with a doctor (Sarita Choudhury), and learns there’s more to life than salesmanship.

Clay’s journey of self-discovery in the desert probably makes more sense within the literary universe of the book. Here, it’s just a series of halfhearted episodes and subplots that go nowhere.

To add cinematic insult to injury, respected British actor Ben Whishaw is in the film for fewer than five minutes, so presumably the rest of his performance is on a cutting-room floor somewhere.

A Hologram for the King looks gorgeous (a beautiful Morocco subs for Saudi Arabia), but haunting desert vistas can only hold interest for so long.

Exclusive: Hulen Movie Tavern, Fort Worth; Alliance Town Center, Fort Worth; AMC Grapevine Mills 30; Cinemark Tinseltown, Grapevine; Harkins Southlake 14; Landmark Magnolia, Dallas; AMC NorthPark, Dallas; Cinemark West Plano 20; Cinemark Legacy 24, Plano; AMC Village on the Parkway, Addison

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 4:05 AM with the headline "Movie review: ‘A Hologram for the King’ starring Tom Hanks."