Hemingway & Gellhorn

I understand that Hemingway was a pretty unbearable character with all his drinking, but I think that when the creators decided to turn his life into a biopic, in which one of his wives also played an important part, they could at least make it in the way that I would enjoy. The acting performances are great, but the movie suffers from being incredibly long and very boring. (10/12/2012)

Wonderful television work. Kidman and Owen shine and play some of their best roles. And the story of Gellhorn and Hemingway's marriage is an excellent subject for them. Despite the minimal budget, there are many very creative ideas to relive the ups and downs of 1936-1945 in a very authentic way. There's no need to simulate all those war conflicts because there's a lot of documentary footage mixed in with the new footage and it works. The blending of color and sepia is very effective. Sometimes it's really great to see those big movie faces in more intimate TV productions. For Kidman, the path from Gellhorn to HBO was to Big Little Lies, and that was and is another triumph. If you are also tempted by this marriage in book form, I recommend Paula McLain's novel "Love and Ruin"; it is the next book in the series, the author having previously covered another of Hemingway's wives, Hadley Richardson, in her novel "The Paris Wife." (17/04/2019)