The plot to "News of the World" is pretty simple and it's a leisurely paced film...somewhat like Clint Eastwood's "Cry Macho". It is set in 1870 in the Reconstruction Era in Texas. Captain Kidd (Tom Hanks) is a Civil War veteran who happens upon a head man and a wild blonde girl in the wilderness. There are papers with the dead man's possessions indicating that the girl, Johanna, was abducted and raised by Kiowa Indians after her parents were killed. She was discovered with the Kiowa and the US Army sent her with an agent to return her to her extended family. But he's dead...and no one seems willing to help...so Kidd finally agrees to take her the 400 miles to Castroville, Texas (near San Antonio).

As you'd suspect, this won't be easy since the child really wants to be with the Kiowa and she doesn't understand English. Her family were German immigrants...so she understands some German...but Kidd only knows a few words of the language himself. The film shows them on their journey across the Plains to her family.

This is a most enjoyable film and a nice change of pace for Tom Hanks. It also talks about a seldom discussed problem which happened on rare occasions...white kids being abducted and raised by various tribes. Interesting and never dull.

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. Hanks just goes about, reading, never dealing with the fact that he was a captain in the 3rd Texas Infantry, or the wife he hasn't seen in at least half a dozen years.

One day on the road, he finds a hanged Kiowa with a badly-printed placard. He also finds Helena Zengel, whose parents were killed, and her carried off by the Indians, so long ago she only speaks Kiowa. No one in authority wants to deal with her, so Hanks finds himself toting her along until he can drop her off at her aunt's farm.

Along the way, of course, they have adventures. I had the impression I was looking at a late 1960s A western, with Jimmy Stewart -- this is Tom Hanks, after all -- instead of John Wayne. There's even a role for Bruce Dern essayed by Michael Angelo Covino. I admired the way that Paul Greengrass's direction allowed character to be revealed gradually, and Dariusz Wolski's camerawork, always ugly, always fascinating, a world of brown dust. Tom Hanks plays decent, but wounded, and Miss Zengel seems to have based her performance on Patty Duke's in THE MIRACLE WORKER.

A good old-fashioned western from director Paul Greengrass, better than his last, the morbid 22 JULY. This one adopts a traditional journey narrative in its story of a grizzled Tom Hanks transporting a precocious young girl across the hostile West in search of her estranged family members. The news aspect doesn't really add much to the story, but Greengrass's superior direction is what makes this worth a watch. He brings in the suspense, handling it well in a lengthy set-piece in which limited firepower adds to the tension. Hanks is on form here and the whole thing is engaging, if not spectacular.