Scrolling around this afternoon I found a Tom Hanks movie I'd never heard of on Hulu. A quiet little piece, A Hologram for a King is a tale that follows Tom Hanks' character, Alan, as he evidently tries to redeem himself and fulfill some needed life funding, as a salesman for a tech company trying to sell holographic meeting gear to Saudi Arabia, and more specifically, via a meeting with the king.

A quiet path through a finding-yourself love story, Alan sets off for a meeting, which is boss clearly doesn't think he deserves except for a small in he has because he knows a relative of the king. There's some delightful worldwide travel and culture differences, that anyone who has traveled can appreciate. He is hit by jet lag for the bulk of the movie, which adds all manner of trouble, but also brings him an ally and bit of a mentor. He works through additional toils of how his team is treated, including the lack of comforts and utility, and an inability to meet with the people he needs for the whole purpose of the demonstration. He's there to straight-up earn funds to help his daughter in college, plus the rest of life, and is struggling with how he got in that situation, too. Tied in all of that, we learn is an ended marriage, and previous business failure.

Tom Hanks brings his usual temperament and demeanor, playing an everyday guy thrown into some reasonably confusing situations. The movie doesn't demand that he be a technologist by any measure, but there are a few "that should be more concerning to him" moments, that maybe are missed instead to show his real lackluster interest in his task. He clearly cares about his peers and coworkers, and feels the pressure to get the job done, but the movie clearly treats that as an excuse for the rest of the situations he encounters.

His character is the most rich, with his cabbie friend running a close second. He runs into some repeating relationships, some of which could have been engaged a little more deeply or with more color or passion, but in the overall goal of the love story, even those are not really bad misses.

The real win of the movie is the culture shock and expectation handling that he has to endure. The sways and growth of the love story comes a little out of no where, and seemed almost to try to be a bit of a surprise, as Alan explores a few different relationships, without really intending to pursue anyone.

In the end, it's a sweet little tale of self-discovery, with a fun exploration in problems and culture, all wrapped in a love story. Not a bad