I'm not sure I can give an honest review since I left 1 hour into the movie. Nothing to hold my interest.
I go to movies to be entertained, not to pick at every little error in a movie. I was thoroughly entertained by News of the World.
There was opportunity in this story set up blatantly and they walked away from adding a much needed layer. The young man who appears halfway through the movie was a missed feel-good opportunity for the end.
Sometimes our paths home are rough. Looking back is painful, and looking forward can be terrifying.
Tom Hanks reunites w/his Captain Phillips director, Paul Greengrass (Flight 93/Jason Bourne), in this Western which deals w/a news reader trying to bring a white child (who's family was killed & raised by Indians) back to the only living kin she has after he discovers her initial transport was killed as well. A former Civil War soldier who fought for the South at the expense of his wife (who died of cholera waiting four years for him to come home) now plies his trade as a newspaper reader (presented as a show of sorts to the masses who probably at that time didn't know how to read or were looking for any kind of entertainment) who still commands a modicum of respect & stature even at this stage in his life so when he comes upon the blonde waif, played by Helena Zengel (who calls him Captain, I guess an unintentional refrain from Captain Phillips), he's incapable of not doing the right thing by escorting the girl to a nearby town who tells him the nearest Indian agent is miles away which he reluctantly does & then again when he hits a wall there, he decides to bring the girl all the way to her nearest relations (an aunt) defending against a trio of bandits hoping to steal the girl & a hostile town where mob rule has taken root & the defacto leader wants to use Hanks to his whims (which backfires by the by!
I am a Forever Fan of Tom Hanks! I can always be assured to love the movie and it will always be meaningful, in good taste and I feel like a better person who has learned something after watching.
I enjoyed it from the beginning to the end. A heart-felt movie.
Tom Hanks travels around Texas, reading newspapers from near and far to people who are to busy and too tired to do so for themselves. They pay a dime a head -- big money in Reconstruction Texas, with Federal troops on everyone's neck, fear of Kiowas, Blacks and Mexicans to people in charge.