Starring Tom Hanks. Rated PG.

In an only vaguely satisfying amalgamation of his roles in Charlie Wilson’s War, Bridge of Spies, and the Toy Story movies, Tom Hanks plays a failing, if determinedly optimistic, salesman trying to pull one last rabbit out of what used to be his Rolodex.

Hanks is the aptly named Alan Clay, who has shape-shifted himself to meet changing times; now he’s starting to wonder if there are any more times to be had. Still smarting from a messy divorce and an alcohol problem, and increasingly regretting his role in outsourcing his previous employer out of existence, he makes a long-shot pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. There, he hopes to sell some cutting-edge teleconferencing technology to the country’s imperious rulers. Hence the title.

Of course, everything goes wrong from the start. And his team of eager young’uns is kept waiting for people who hardly ever show up, in a tent with dubious AC and iffy Wi-Fi.

In adapting Dave Eggers’s soul-searching novel of the same name, German writer-director Tim Tykwer has retained the postindustrial ennui and added other, more “relatable” features. Aside from CGI effects that add nothing to the story, and heavy-handed exposition at the top (mostly of material that’s eventually revealed anyway), there’s a significant change in the love-interest demographic. After failing to pick up generous offers from a sharp-witted Danish woman (The Duke of Burgundy’s excellent Sidse Babett Knudsen), Alan sets his sights on a beautiful Saudi doctor, well played by Sarita Choudhury. Good thing she’s rich. There are so many obstacles to human happiness in the kingdom, even as softened here, that these people need all the help they can get.