A Hologram for the King

Tom Hanks wanders around Saudi Arabia in a dry adaptation of Dave Eggers's bestselling novel from writer/director Tom Tykwer (Cloud Atlas). As ever, Hanks is endearing as Alan Clay, a salesman in a midlife crisis who's pitching for a contract supplying IT systems (with holographic face-time) for a new mini-city in the sand. However, the Saudi royals, who are bankrolling the project, give him no time, and banish his team to a tent outside their air-conditioned headquarters. The trouble with this fish-out-of-water story is there's little sense of place or culture, even with Alan's driver Yousef (Alexander Black) pointing out the sights. Yousef is also the comedy relief, paranoid about being bombed (not by terrorists but by a jealous husband). Sadly the running jokes wear thin and there's not enough of the book's existential drama. Alan clearly feels disconnected in his everyday life but a romance with his doctor (Sarita Choudhury) is so ethereal, it fails to bridge the gap. Worse still, the portrayal of Saudi Arabia is as substantial as a mirage.