Hemingway & Gellhorn Reviews

Good, but long. I found this movie very informative. I knew nothing of Martha Gellhorn till I saw this biodrama. Hemingway lived up to his player-drunkard reputation, but a softer side of him was portrayed, as well. The supporting cast was really good, also. Nicole Kidman has quite a way with masterful facial impersonations (and has one heck of a makeup artist!). The first couple of minutes of the movie is supposed to be Martha Gellhorn in her later years, and I had no idea that it was Kidman. I eventually recognized her voice, but that was really the only give away.....

"Hemingway & Gellhorn" opens with Ernest Hemingway(Clive Owen), not writing, but fishing and catching a huge specimen which is displayed in his favorite Key West bar. In walks Martha Gellhorn(Nicole Kidman) like a tall, cool glass of lemonade. Suitably impressed by her ample charms, he invites her over to his house where he is hosting a fundraiser for the Spanish Civil War, with John Dos Passos(David Strathairn) giving commentary. Suitably inspired, Hemingway announces plans to go to Spain to make a documentary to counter fascist propaganda. It is then that his wife Pauline(Molly Parker) reminds him that he is in fact married, with children and Catholic to boot and forbids him from going. Hemingway goes anyway, with Gellhorn finding her own way to Spain.

"Hemingway & Gellhorn" has a wealth of historical and personal details about its subjects at its disposal. Sadly, it does not make a great use of them, as this feels at times like little more than a bargain basement version of "Reds," nor can it measure up to Ken Loach's "Land and Freedom." In depicting the past, "Hemingway & Gellhorn" also seeks to emulate the magical age of romantic bickering in Hollywood but that kind of charm and chemistry can never be replicated. Clive Owen, butch as he is, may seem right for the role on the surface but with that mustache, glasses and beret, he makes me think much more of Groucho Marx, than either Gary Cooper or Humphrey Bogart. And in trying to be an epic, the movie is stretched to the breaking point, being just long enough for Parker Posey, of all people, to put in an appearance. I know the movie bookends with Hemingway fishing but a better start would have been in Spain with Gellhorn decamping from a tank. Now, that's how you make an entrance. In fact, since we already know so much about Hemingway, this should have been Gellhorn's movie with her long career as a war correspondent being a revelation.

la biografía de estos dos grandes de la escritura no se puede plasmar en una película pero se puede observar como era la vida de los escritores de aquel tiempo..que iban hacia la aventura y la acción para que sus ideas surgan..

I liked Hemingway till this film, now I am madly in love with this man.
Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman are incredibly portraying, you just can't stop falling in love with them.

A work of cinematic wonder meant to be empirically adored.

âLife is not long at all, never long enough, but days are very long indeed.â?

Me dejó un sinsabor... raro con la gente de HBO

Great film! A bit long but still is a great achievement!

A wet rag of a movie with a muddled script, earnest performances and a highly-imaginative lovemaking scene.

Long but intricate and fascinating look into the lives of Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, set in the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War.

Kidman makes a fine Gellhorn in this tale of the brilliant war correspondent. And wow they're getting good at that old-lady-makeup now aren't they!

This is a movie primarily about Martha Gellhorn, war correspondent, who also happened to be Ernest Hemingway's third wife. Martha states in the movie that she does not see herself as a footnote in someone else's life. Perhaps this movie will help to remedy that reality. The movie follows the romantic and married life of Hemingway and Gellhorn from the time they fell in love during the Spanish Civil War, until the end of their marriage in Cuba during WWII. This movie portrays Martha as a remarkably courageous, determined woman and a fierce trailblazer in a male-dominated profession. As many biographies have already revealed, Hemingway was a troubled man, given to fits of violence, bouts of depression, and great passion that could quickly turn to unrepentant meanness. In this movie, as in the biographies, Gellhorn is shown to be Hemingway's greatest inspiration and greatest rival. The movie is long, feels long, as if the filmmakers felt a responsibility to cover everything. And of course, being a Philip Kaufman movie, there are some great sex scenes. Nicole Kidman rightly steals the show as the movie progresses. Clive Owen is an actor I've never really warmed to. I think he captures Hemingway well enough though at times seems a bit cartoonish. In the end, Martha Gellhorn is the subject and the hero of the film, which could be titled "Surviving Ernest Hemingway".

Despite professional attempts to meld historical footage and current imaging, I didn't find myself believing the portrayal.

Well it is an HBO movie, so I doubt it will be in cinemas worldwide. A good documentary, and PG 40+ rated movie about Hemingway's insanity, and Gellhorns start as a war journalist. Clive Owen had perfectly portrayed Hemingway, eventhought I couldn't but wait for the real chubby huge real character to show up in the movie-he didn't. The actors line up is rich with all those people you expect to show for such a celebration of love and insanity

"Hemingway & Gellhorn" opens with Ernest Hemingway(Clive Owen), not writing, but fishing and catching a huge specimen which is displayed in his favorite Key West bar. In walks Martha Gellhorn(Nicole Kidman) like a tall, cool glass of lemonade. Suitably impressed by her ample charms, he invites her over to his house where he is hosting a fundraiser for the Spanish Civil War, with John Dos Passos(David Strathairn) giving commentary. Suitably inspired, Hemingway announces plans to go to Spain to make a documentary to counter fascist propaganda. It is then that his wife Pauline(Molly Parker) reminds him that he is in fact married, with children and Catholic to boot and forbids him from going. Hemingway goes anyway, with Gellhorn finding her own way to Spain.

"Hemingway & Gellhorn" has a wealth of historical and personal details about its subjects at its disposal. Sadly, it does not make a great use of them, as this feels at times like little more than a bargain basement version of "Reds," nor can it measure up to Ken Loach's "Land and Freedom." In depicting the past, "Hemingway & Gellhorn" also seeks to emulate the magical age of romantic bickering in Hollywood but that kind of charm and chemistry can never be replicated. Clive Owen, butch as he is, may seem right for the role on the surface but with that mustache, glasses and beret, he makes me think much more of Groucho Marx, than either Gary Cooper or Humphrey Bogart. And in trying to be an epic, the movie is stretched to the breaking point, being just long enough for Parker Posey, of all people, to put in an appearance. I know the movie bookends with Hemingway fishing but a better start would have been in Spain with Gellhorn decamping from a tank. Now, that's how you make an entrance. In fact, since we already know so much about Hemingway, this should have been Gellhorn's movie with her long career as a war correspondent being a revelation.

This is one of the worst, most laughable movies I have ever seen. We watched it to laugh at the unintentional humor throughout. The relationship between Owen and Kidman was in a word: ridiculous. The integration of old newsreel was an interesting idea, but ended up being, again, silly. I can't understand how anyone can watch this film and not come to the conclusion that it was made in a haste, is cheesy and just meant to make a quick buck. If this film was made in earnest, I'll feel a bit bad about what I just said, but I think it's okay to ask a bit more from films with sizable budgets. Also jarring my sympathy is a scene where Kidman is talking with the empress of China. The depiction of Chinese people in the movie in general makes me gag, but in the scene I'm referring to, the empress loses her cool and stands up and forces Gellhorn (Kidman) to accept a broach by violently pinning it to her jacket. This is after having a somewhat heated although unintentionally stilted conversation about whether or not China is civilized. Even if you believe such a heavy-handed conversation took place, there is no way a dignitary would behave in the way depicted; just a lack of imagination and taste. This film was another rushed to production joke. My goodness, do not watch unless a drinking game is involved (not something I'm into, but how else to describe the watchability of such unintentionally silly films...?)

Rooted by full bodied performances by Nicole Kidman & Clive Owen, this HBO film's look at the wild and tempestuous relationship between Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn once again shows why the network consistently makes a lot of feature films pale in comparison. While not director Philip Kaufman's best film, it has a lot going for it. The effects of inserting the actors into archival footage and making impressive use of filming the San Francisco area to substitute for a variety of locations is well done. Great use of a wide variety of name actors in supporting roles including David Stratharin, Tony Shalhoub, Robert Duvall, Rodrigo Santoro, Molly Parker, Parker Posey and many more.

Saw this last night on HBO. It was mildly diverting, mostly because I'm interested in Hemmingway and the Spanish Civil War, and I had no knowledge of Gellhorn, so that was interesting. Also, the integration with newsreel footage was very well done, and a neat feature. Buuuut . . . as a movie, it was pretty bad: the characters, especially Hemmingway, were so extreme and predictable as to be cartoonish. The idea of putting words in the characters' mouths from their writings may lend accuracy, but you could always tell when that was happening, and it never seemed like something someone would actually say in that situation. I suppose the sex scenes were important to the story, but frankly the long sex scenes were mostly boring.