Hemingway & Gellhorn 2012

     Novelist Ernest Hemingway and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn meet in a Key West bar in 1936.  Hemingway is married to his second wife Pauline and they have two young boys.  Gellhorn is single and she’s on her way to Spain to see the Spanish Civil War and report back for Collier’s Magazine.  Hemingway sees a chance for adventure and also to get to know Gellhorn, he goes to Spain to file his own report.  They stay in Spain together until 1939.  Hemingway divorces Pauline in 1940 in order to marry Gellhorn.  They stay together until 1945 when she asks him for a divorce.  She became a prominent writer also.  Gellhorn was the inspiration for Hemingway’s novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls.

     I thought this would be good because of the acting abilities of Kidman, Owen and Strathairn.  But, this film seems just lukewarm and the script lets everyone down.  The colorful life portrayed of the couple and the efforts of the actors don’t come to life.  Archival footage is used in a lot of the scenes in other countries during the conflicts investigated by Hemingway and Gellhorn.  3* (This movie is OK)

154 min, Drama directed by Phillip Kaufman with Nicole Kidman, Clive Owen, David Strathairn, Parker Posey, Robert Duvall, Rodrigo Santoro, Molly Parker.

Note:  Blockbuster 2 ½*, imdb 6.1 out of 10, 50% critic 48% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.