StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Seraherrera The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Dan1863Sickles After the execrable HBO fiasco HEMINGWAY AND GELHORN, I was very wary of Hemingway movies. But this modestly charming film about a young reporter who looks up to the aging Hemingway as a father figure in his final days is surprisingly touching and authentic. Adrian Sparks is amazing as the aging lion Hemingway. What he puts across is not so much the publicity-hungry tough guy the world remembers, but the shy, reclusive author tortured by sadness and regret and the sense of loss. This is a Hemingway who has accomplished so much but feels deep down that on almost every human level he blew it. The sadness makes it easier to understand the binge drinking and the rage. Joely Richardson is terrific as Mary Hemingway, Ernest's fourth and final wife. Not only is she tough, beautiful and classy enough to imitate Marlene Dietrich and match Papa drink for drink, but you can see her enormous sadness even when she's laughing her head off. This woman has seen Hemingway at his greatest and now she's stuck with what's left of him . . . but she never gives in to despair. Now I have to say that the young reporter's story is not nearly as compelling as the lion in winter stuff. Ed Myers is what they call a "Mary Sue" in fan fiction. He's just a stand-in for the viewer, like, "it would be so cool if I got to hang out with Hemingway in Cuba! I bet he'd teach me stuff and we'd go fishing and just hanging around with him would make that pretty girl at the office fall crazy in love with me!" There's nothing about this guy that explains why Hemingway (or anyone else) would adopt him as a son. Or why the prettiest girl in the office would fall madly in love with him.One final thought: if you wonder how Hemingway himself would have viewed this story of his last days there's a very interesting early story he wrote called "The Battler." It's about how a teenage Nick Adams (really Hemingway himself) comes across a washed up champion prize fighter who's gone punch drunk and become a hobo. The man drifts from town to town in a permanent daze cared for by a single black servant who is really more of a keeper. The champ's ex wife is denounced as a tramp but ultimately it's revealed that she sends the champ money every month so he can drift around and not starve. When I was a kid I wondered what the point of the story was. I think it's Hemingway acknowledging the limits of his own values. You can be the big, tough, famous white guy, you can be the champ at what you do, but in the end the people who are supposed to "serve" you (women and blacks) will end up owning you. Winner take nothing!This movie tells that story, in a way. But it also suggests a more human possibility of redemption, when Hemingway tells the kid, in effect, "don't be like me. Learn from my mistakes." The resolution is pretty cheesy (the pretty girl at the office? Really?) But at least they were trying to imagine the possibility of hope. Hemingway could have used a little of that himself!

kynick2 I really wanted to like this film as I am a Hemingway fan like many people. I read a few reviews that trashed the film and then I came across one that said "I don't know why all the bad reviews" and that was enough for me to download a check it out. The film started OK. I like Ribisi (Sneaky Pete)and Minka Kelly is simply beautiful but from there it goes down hill. If they had shown Cuba (ala Woody Allen New York/Rome/Paris etc) it would have been more watchable but they didn't and it wasn't.The acting. Oh my goodness, to say it was wooden would be the understatement of the 21st century. The worst of the bunch is the guy that plays Hemingway. I've never seen or heard Hemingway in real life but I can't imagine he was the passionless bore he seemed to be. Maybe not a fair criticism but I like the way Hemingway was portrayed in Midnight in Paris. Halfway or so through the film, there is a get together and a confrontation of sorts between EH and his wife...here is where you get bad acting at it's finest. Ribisi seemed out of place but I believe that is more a product of a poorly written story than his skill set.The story. How bad is it? Let me count the ways. Never mind, I have better things to do. How this is rated above "3" is beyond me.

jrcadams-231-553486 I loved seeing places that were familiar to me from recent visits. As I watched the film, I recognized many scenes that I have seen before. The film was released in 2016, but I saw at least parts of it years ago. The nude scenes were missing from the version I saw, so I suspect it was a TV special, and some scenes were cut.I don't know why it got some terrible reviews. I could understand it if someone thought it could be better, but at least one review was negative for every aspect of the film, acting, directing, music. It almost looked like a conspiracy! I suspect that the aborted FBI raid on the fishing vessel was cooked up for a bit of drama, but didn't actually happen. Apart from that, it was, in fact, a perfectly respectable film.

cruzanheart Well, okay, maybe the one about continuity -- I had a hard time following the time line of how long Ribisi's character was in Cuba each time ("returning on Tuesday" seemed awfully short compared to everything that happened while he was in Cuba), but I'll overlook that in favor of the story and the excellent acting by the cast. I feel that Adrian Sparks portrayed Papa in all of his flawed, tortured glory without going over the top. The audience senses the churning volcano beneath the surface that occasionally bursts forth. After reading "Hemingway in Love" this past winter, I had a greater depth of understanding for the unresolved guilt and regret that Papa carried in his later years. Joely Richardson was perfect as Mary, a woman who actually had a very interesting life all on her own but who was perpetually in the shadow of the great man. Giovanni Ribisi played his role quite well -- any woodenness belonged to the character and his repressed feelings of abandonment, not to the actor's characterization. Loved the movie, and now must read the book!