Hemingway & Gellhorn

Great acting --great story--for Hemingway fans--and his strange relationships with women

Philip Kaufman's direction and Nicole Kidman's superb acting are standouts in making this a great film. I very much like the way Kaufman created the illusion of history taking place before our eyes, the embedding of Kidman and Owen into archival footage with the filming of Kidman in both vintage-sepia toned film and color film. It's a bit hard to describe here, but anyone interested in how it was done and the effect it created should see the HBO clip on YouTube called "Hemingway & Gellhorn: Visual Effects Piece." I've seen a number of films set in the time period, the latest that comes to mind is Pan's Labyrinth, but none have made me feel I was inside the frame struggling to understand the action and effects of war the way this film did. I'm very grateful that the storyline so closely follows the historic reality of their lives. That is so rarely done. Being true to history generally means the audience has to accept that there is no 3-act play here. We can't fit these people's lives into the neat narrative that pleases most critics. To do so would force this film to be less than it turned out to be. There's a 1940's film (Arise, My Love) with Claudette Colbert playing a character said to have been inspired by Martha Gellhorn. It has a special romantic charm, and it follows the usual arc of romantic movies. It is fine in its own right to remake films like that, to alter the narrative to follow an arc, but this is not the aim of Hemingway & Gellhorn. Like life, it's a lot messier.I found Clive Owen excellent in the film. Some reviewers said he overacted or tried too hard, but that's actually who Hemingway was--a person who overdid, overplayed his own role in life. Really, what man in his late 30's wants to be known as "Papa" to his male friends? (The nickname was one he encouraged from the age of 26 or 27 according to first wife Hadley.) Hemingway created an image for himself that helped him define himself, but also stifled his ability to grow later in life. It probably didn't help that he was bipolar according to a diagnosis made in later years. Clive Owen captures the best and worst of Hemingway, no mean feat. He really deserves more credit that he got from critics. He was superb in the role.Right now, A Farewell to Arms (the film made from Hemingway's second novel) is available to view in Prime. The movie is referred to in the film both in the dialog and through its movie poster on Hemingway's wall. Also on Prime right now is the documentary referred to, The Spanish Earth. I can't say I've seen either, but it seems this is my chance so I thought I'd pass it along.

While I agree, largely, with Sagacious's review, I think it was a more enjoyable film than they found it. Not necessarily a better film, but a decent evening's entertainment. I did like, a lot, the fading in and out of the vintage footage, and I found it fairly easy to ignore the mainly quite pompous posturing of the protagonists and concentrate on the 20th century history. Was Hemingway actually this much of an ass? Dunno -- and don't really care -- and if anything it made for an interesting tension between not just Hemingway and Gellhorn, bet between Hemingway and his friends and, of course, enemies.

We saw a poster about this movie at the Hemmingway house in Key West during a visit in April of 2024. Searched for it and found it on prime. Kidman and Owen were fantastic in their roles but the movie opened my eyes as to what kind of person Hemmingway was. Pretty loathsome and disgusting kind of a total male chauvinist. I loved the movie but I'll never think of him in the same way!!

Folks are being too hard on this film. First Kidman is sexy and magnificent as Gellhorn, especially when appearing as the aging writer with some wonderful reflective acting. Clive is very good, using his muscular stature and larger than life "braggadocio" style to project an especially beastial and boistorous Hemingway character, but I think also with a sensitive and human perspective.The opening bloody scene with the Marlin is extremely evocative in summarizing Hemingway's philosophical view that brutality is, in a sense, at the center of life and that "all things must die".It clearly underlines the "existential" perspective that pervades Hemingway's writing, and his own violent and self-abusive struggle with life. However, what I found most remarkable is the semi-documentary style of the movie, with the grainy original footage, sometimes including digitized insets of Kidman and Clive. The gorgeous sets, the great supporting actors, the good, if not great, acting by the key characters, and a fabulous story of adventure and humanitarian horror, all project an engaging and eventful film well worth watching. I think it is a far better film than the academy award winning "Reds" by Warren Beatty (1981), similar in general plot and character. Overall, a very thought provoking and powerful experience.

Nicole Kidman did a most admirable job portraying the young Gellhorn, although the older version who narrated the film was far too coarse and seemed to bear little relationship to her younger self, no matter how striking and convincing the Hollywood make-up artists were.. Converely, I thought this was one of Clive Owen's worst roles. He seriously overplayed his hand in trying to present the gruff, overly masculine and crass personality Hemingway may have been. He was almost wooden in his one-dimensional portrayal of Hemingway. The screenplay was not bad, but lagged frequently and had me checking on how much time there was left to the movie. The cinematography was the strongest aspect of the film interestingly and seamlessly fading in and out of period, grainy, even black and white photography and the latest HD quality film.

WISH MORE STORIES LIKE THIS COULD BE AVAIABLE . GREAT STORY.