When “News of the World” opens on Christmas Day, viewers will see many action-packed scenes with Tom Hanks, who becomes a complete cowboy like Civil War veteran Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd. But there are also many emotional and exciting moments between Hanks and his film partner, Helena Zengel, 12.
“News of the World” is an adaptation of the 2016 novel of the same name by Paulette Jiles, and co-written and directed by Paul Greengrass. Hanks stars as Captain Kidd, a former war hero who travels across border towns in the southwest, reading the day’s news to workers and farmers in search of money.
Along the way, he meets Johanna “Cicada” Leonberger (Zengel), 10, an orphan who was adopted by a tribe of Native American Kiowa before they had a tragic end. Kidd decides that he will take the girl to his closest relative in Hill Country, but the journey ahead is fraught with dangers – and occasional antics, despite the film’s general harshness.
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In the beginning, Johanna is fierce with Captain Kidd, and it takes a lot of convincing (and food) for him to prove that he is not a threat. But the tension eventually dissipates as the unlikely pair crosses the dangerous Texas field together.
In an emotional scene, Johanna and Kidd get into a shootout with some nasty bad guys. Retreating to the mountains to hide, Kidd soon runs out of ammunition for his pistol. He tells Johanna to run, but she runs back to the cart to find a bucket of spare coins – which they use to load bird cartridges to defend themselves. Thrifty!
Shortly after the shooting is resolved, the two camp and Johanna begins to paint Kidd’s horse while singing a Kiowa blessing. It is a brief, but moving, look at how their relationship has changed, and begins to cement for viewers that Johanna sees Kidd as a protector, not a captor.
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Later, when the two are on the road, they play the classic “I Spy”, but with a difference – Johanna only speaks Kiowa and a little German. The two take turns pointing animals and plants along the road and teaching each other how to pronounce them, laughing at the new words and slowly breaking the language barrier between them. This continues in a lovely later scene, when Kidd asks Johanna to teach him his favorite song in Kiowa.
There is another moving moment in the film that totally changes the dynamics between the two travelers – but we cannot say all because it’s definitely a spoiler. For now, let’s just say that Johanna comes to Captain Kidd’s aid in a very unexpected way and ends up saving the ex-soldier’s bacon.
“News of the World” hits theaters on December 25 and is available internationally on Netflix the same day.
Read Tom Hanks ‘original story’ The cutest moments on screen with 12-year-old ‘World News’, Co-star Helena Zengel on TheWrap