Following in the footsteps of other smash-hit films is nothing new for Hollywood. This film attempted to follow both "Walk the Line" and " Crazy Heart" in their portrayal of country music stars and the profits associated with those films.... but failed to do either.
This is the tale of Hank Williams Sr. and while he is quite famous in country music circles he doesn't even come close to the worldwide appeal of Johnny Cash (real person) or Bad Blake (completely made up person.)
The main attraction of this film is based upon the fact that Tom Hiddleston does all of the lyrics of Hank Williams throughout the film and that is impressive for sure..... but i'm afraid it just isn't impressive enough.
I think the biggest problem with this film is the fact that compared to other country music stars(or really any other genre of star), Hank Williams was actually not that bad of a guy. They tried to portray him as a womanizer which is something that I can't believe any music star would ever be, and a bit of a drunk. That's pretty much it.
To see a musical celebrity from the 40's (or whenever) that sleeps with multiple women and drinks a lot isn't terribly surprising or even really all that scandalous. I don't think they had a tremendous amount of source material to work with here.
They have certain parts of the film that are pretending to be documentary confessionals but it is extremely obvious that they are fake because the people talking are neither in their 90's or dead, which would be the case if they were genuine. You can make the screen black and white all you want but come on! We know what is going on here; these are not real interviews.
There is no denying that Hank Williams was instrumental in the formation of country-western music, but at the end of the day he wasn't a bad person and their attempts at trying to prove the opposite fall dead flat. Tom Hiddleston does an average job at best and while i am impressed that he can sing a bit, Hank Williams wasn't exactly Axel Rose. He was more of an innovator than an exceptionally good singer.
Unfortunately, this film is just not very good. It is boring and the fact that Tom sings (he really sings!) here and there is not enough to carry this dud of a film beyond mediocrity. It lost loads of money and is generally loathed by critics and also this guy right here.