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'A Hologram for the King': Darkly funny tale of aging American businessman befuddled in Arabia

Just about the only person on Earth who should be happy with the opening of A Hologram for the King is David Byrne, the Talking Heads front man whose 1981 single, "Once in a Lifetime," gets reinterpreted by Tom Hanks in a wildly unsuccessful, wildly literal-minded dream sequence. The check is in the mail.

Tom Hanks is a beleaguered businessman on a sales trip to Saudi Arabia, with Sarita Choudhury, in "A Hologram for the King."
Tom Hanks is a beleaguered businessman on a sales trip to Saudi Arabia, with Sarita Choudhury, in "A Hologram for the King."Read moreRoadside Attractions

Just about the only person on Earth who should be happy with the opening of A Hologram for the King is David Byrne, the Talking Heads front man whose 1981 single, "Once in a Lifetime," gets reinterpreted by Tom Hanks in a wildly unsuccessful, wildly literal-minded dream sequence. The check is in the mail.

But fans of Dave Eggers' 2012 novel about a late-middle-age American businessman's sales trip to Saudi Arabia can breathe at least a small sigh of relief. Once the intro is over, director Tom Tykwer's adaptation finds a tone and timbre that at least reflects that of the book's. Less gloomy, and without the authorial omniscience that can take a reader inside the head of its protagonist, but with respect and fidelity to the gist of the tale.

And it's a tale that's both personal and global: Hanks' Alan Clay is a divorced dad who doesn't have the money to pay his daughter's college tuition and doesn't have much time left in his downward-arcing career. But here he is on a jet heading for Jeddah, looking at the chance to turn it all around.

Alan, played by Hanks in trusty Everyman mode, is the representative of a company pitching a new IT communications system for a city the Saudi king is building in the desert. Alan's team - a trio of millennial techies (they could be his kids) - are already there, setting up their demo in a big tent by the sea. All Alan has to do is close the deal.

His confidence begins to wane, though. He's jet-lagged, he misses the shuttle to the city under construction, he keeps getting the runaround from the king's people - if they are, indeed, the king's people.

Alan's driver, Yousef (Alexander Black), proves friendly but flaky, with the reliability of his automobile called into question. Alan meets a Danish embassy worker (Sidse Babett Knudsen) who invites him to a party at the ambassador's digs. It's quite the bacchanal.

And then there's this worrisome lump on Alan's back. In Eggers' pitch-perfect parable, the ominous growth becomes a point of obsessive dread; in Tykwer's film, it serves more as a plot point, a way for Alan to meet the beautiful doctor, Zahra (the splendid Sarita Choudhury), with whom he will spend some quality time. That's the main trouble with A Hologram for the King: All the elements of Eggers' story are there; the emotional and psychological resonance is not.

That said, A Hologram for the King - which hits a timely note with its themes of globalization, of outsourcing, of the decline of good old-fashioned American industry - has a certain melancholy comedic appeal. Eggers began his book with a quote from Samuel Beckett: "It is not every day that we are needed."

That quiet existential irony, albeit diluted and distorted, still reverberates in this stranger-in-a-strange-land story.

srea@phillynews.com

215-854-5629

@Steven_Rea

A Hologram for the King
Directed by Tom Tykwer. With Tom Hanks, Alexander Black, and Sarita Choudhury. Distributed by Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions and Saban Films.
Running time: 1 hour, 37 mins.
Parent's guide: R (profanity, nudity, adult themes).
Playing at: Ritz Five, Carmike Ritz Center/NJ, and select area theaters.