But, I gave it another shot just so I could finally write a review telling you all how much I fucking hated it.
Martha Gellhorn (Nicole Kidman) is a beautiful, talented writer who longs to do more. She meets famed writer and equally famed alcoholic Ernest Hemingway (Clive Owen) at a bar in Key West, and through him, meets other Americans worried about the rise of fascism in the on-going Spanish Civil War. Gellhorn fakes her way to the front, focusing on the human cost in the war and eventually has an affair with the married Hemingway. They are imminently unsuited for one another, however, and their relationship becomes strained and untenable.
If there was ever a case to be made for separating art from the artist, it would be Hemingway. The man was a very good writer, but an absolutely shit human being. He remains the poster child for toxic masculinity. This movie does a very good job of showing exactly how disgusting and immature his behavior was towards women. Unfortunately, I really didn't need to see an entire movie about that. Instead of focusing on this period, I would rather have seen a true biopic of Martha Gellhorn, one where she's not relegated to Hemingway's third wife, but a trailblazing pioneer in a male-dominated industry.
Misogyny aside, it's also just not a very interesting story. I kept wishing the subplots would just take over. Instead, I got a random voiceover telling me what happened to key characters. They tried to do something interesting by splicing the main characters into historical footage, but it looks so fake, I'd have rather they just not bothered. We deserve better. Gellhorn deserved better.
It's streaming on HBO Max. Avoid.
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