It's easy to revel in Hemingway & Gellhorn's occasional forays into unabashed romanticism. Philip Kaufman hints at the visual style and sexiness that makes The Unbearable Lightness of Being so masterful. Unfortunately, this telefilm is otherwise too ambitious in scale and structure. Instead of ever even considering scaling back, the script tries to cover entirely too much ground even in a bloated two and a half hour runtime. Wacky color saturations and unnecessary interludes only add to the frustration.
Nicole Kidman gives something of a star turn here, though she's working under less than ideal conditions. Her most impressive moments are delivered in heavy aging makeup with a gravelly voice, disappearing into the character while she's distractingly luminous in the rest of the film. She easily outshines Clive Owen, who has the meatier role in Hemingway. Supporting turns by names like Robert Duvall, Tony Shalhoub and Emmy-nominated David Strathairn are scarcely worth mentioning.
Rogier Stoffers's cinematography, Ruth Myers's costumes and the sets are exemplary.
No comments:
Post a Comment