''Wrestling Ernest Hemingway'' is a 1993 American
romantic drama film written by
Steve Conrad and directed by
Randa Haines
Randa Jo Haines (born February 20, 1945, in Los Angeles) is a film and television director and producer. Haines started her career as a script supervisor on several low-budget features in the 1970s, including '' Let's Scare Jessica to Death'' ...
, starring
Richard Harris
Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, notably as Corrado Zeller in Michelangelo Antonioni's '' Red Desert'', Frank Machin in '' This Sporting ...
,
Robert Duvall
Robert Selden Duvall (; born January 5, 1931) is an American actor and filmmaker. His career spans more than seven decades and he is considered one of the greatest American actors of all time. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, four Gold ...
,
Sandra Bullock,
Shirley MacLaine, and
Piper Laurie
Piper Laurie (born Rosetta Jacobs; January 22, 1932) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in the films ''The Hustler'' (1961), ''Carrie (1976 film), Carrie'' (1976), and ''Children of a Lesser God (film), Children of a Lesser God' ...
. The film is about two elderly men in Florida who form a friendship and the romantic relationships they have with the women in their respective lives. ''Wrestling Ernest Hemingway'' garnered mixed reviews from critics, praising the performances but criticized the overly melodramatic and sentimental direction of the plot. It was also a
box-office bomb
A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
, grossing $278,720 against a $20 million budget.
Plot
Frank is a retired Irish seaman. Walter is a retired Cuban barber. They are two lonely old men living in Florida, trapped in the emptiness of their own lives.
When they meet in a park, the flamboyant Frank is finally able to start a conversation with the introverted Walter after several attempts. They begin to spend time together and become friends, sometimes meeting at the snack shop where Walter orders the same food every day and becomes fond of Elaine, a young waitress.
Frank's salty talk and crude behavior in public offend Walter and threaten their friendship. In the meantime, Frank attempts to start a romance with Georgia, a woman he meets at the movies, while dealing with Helen, his landlord who is put off by his manner.
Cast
*
Robert Duvall
Robert Selden Duvall (; born January 5, 1931) is an American actor and filmmaker. His career spans more than seven decades and he is considered one of the greatest American actors of all time. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, four Gold ...
as Walter
*
Richard Harris
Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, notably as Corrado Zeller in Michelangelo Antonioni's '' Red Desert'', Frank Machin in '' This Sporting ...
as Frank
*
Shirley MacLaine as Helen Cooney
*
Sandra Bullock as Elaine
*
Piper Laurie
Piper Laurie (born Rosetta Jacobs; January 22, 1932) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in the films ''The Hustler'' (1961), ''Carrie (1976 film), Carrie'' (1976), and ''Children of a Lesser God (film), Children of a Lesser God' ...
as Georgia
Reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has a 59% approval rating based on 22 reviews, with an average score of 5.9/10. The site's consensus states: "Predictable but moving, ''Wrestling Ernest Hemingway'' is an understated and melancholic drama that gets plenty of mileage out of an outstanding cast that includes Robert Duvall, Richard Harris, Shirley MacLaine, and Sandra Bullock."
Roger Ebert wrote that: "
e movie is essentially about the close observation of behavior. Like some of Hemingway's stories, the real action is all implied. The characters trade small talk, and we sense that larger issues are lurking beneath their cheerfulness."
Caryn James
Caryn A. James (born Caryn A. Fuoroli) is an American film critic, journalist, university lecturer and writer.
Biography
James is one of at least three children born to James M. Fuoroli Sr. and Joan A. Ford. A native of Providence, Rhode Isla ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' gave credit to Harris and Duvall for giving "two intelligent but distant performances" and the actresses for being "appealing" in their "understandably tiny" roles, but felt the film suffers from an overlong runtime, "an easy, sentimental impulse" to its scenes and succumbs to the "scenery chewing and predictability" of its elderly-focused tale, saying "Instead of simply assuming that the old have interesting lives, the film never stops congratulating itself for being daring enough to focus on them. It shows the terrible strain of trying too hard." Louis Black of ''
The Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'' praised Harris and Duvall's screen chemistry, and the actresses for being "outstanding" in their roles but was critical of the "superficial melodramatic stereotyping" throughout the story, saying "
's another right of passage movie that pinballs off of clichés as though that is a way to achieve meaning. But there are those performances."
Ty Burr
Ty Burr (born August 17, 1957) is an American film critic, columnist, and author who currently writes a film and popular culture newsletter "Ty Burr's Watchlist" on Substack. Burr previously served as film critic at ''The Boston Globe'' for two ...
of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'' gave the film a C grade, saying it "feels canned and inert" with Haines' direction and Michael Convertino's score turning the male bonding scenes into "swollen epiphanies" when compared to the "richly funny observations" in ''
Grumpy Old Men'', adding that Harris gives "a gutsy performance in a gutless movie."
References
External links
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{{Steven Conrad
1993 films
1993 romantic drama films
1990s American films
1990s English-language films
American buddy films
American romantic drama films
Films about old age
Films directed by Randa Haines
Films scored by Michael Convertino
Films set in Florida