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Somewhere between culture-clash comedy and midlife-crisis meandering lies "A Hologram for the King," an offbeat and off-putting tale of a salesman at the end of his rope.
In this adaptation of the Dave Eggers novel, Tom Hanks stars as Alan Clay, a field rep for a Boston tech company sent to Saudi Arabia to land a deal to sell IT systems to the king's massive pet project: a city being built in the middle of the desert. Clay struggles with jet lag, the lack of wi-fi, his bosses' impatience, his ex-wife's nagging over their daughter's tuition, the Saudis' casual relationship with time, and a cyst growing on his back.
He gets advice from a local driver, Yousef (Alexander Black), and some surreptitious alcohol from a Danish acquaintance (Sidse Babett Knudsen) — but makes an unexpected connection with an Arabic doctor (Sarita Choudhury).
Writer-director Tom Tykwer, who worked with Hanks on "Cloud Atlas," labors to capture the sardonic humor of Eggers' writing, but much of the movie devolves into an outdated parody of non-Western cultural manners. Hanks is charming, as always, but even he shows a slight irritation at the stereotyping going on around him.
'A Hologram for the King'
Opens Friday, April 22, at area theaters; rated R for some sexuality/nudity, language and brief drug use; 97 minutes.