Strong and Moving!

Absolutely Fantastic

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is one of the many really good films that the public slips by without notice - their loss. Well done on every level, writing/scripting, the acting is superbly understated and real. Duvall does is usual great job, as does Shirley Mclain. Richard Harris is excellent and Sandra Bullock makes her small role a pleasure to watch. A bit of a tear jerker, but real to life. It's one of those wonderful not so little films that will stick with you long after you have forgotten the title. If you can find a copy don't let it go until you have watched it. Then be sure to share it with friends, they will appreciate the recommendation.

The teaming of Robert Duvall and Richard Harris sounded promising even before this film opened, and neither disappoint in this tale of a couple of elderly oddballs having one last fling. Walter (Duvall) is a shy man, who has never danced with a woman, and whose only friend is a young waitress (Sandra Bullock) for whom he has developed a quaint affection. Frank (Harris) is a boaster, who claims to have wrestled with Hemingway – hence the film's title – who antagonises his landlady (Shirley MacLaine) and his lady friend (Piper Laurie); his family largely ignore him.The beauty of this film, written by twenty-one year old Steve Conrad and directed by Randa Haines, is that it gives you both a belief in the characters, and a genuine interest in what will happen to them. As Walter and Frank, misfits both, become friends, we cheer them on and are concerned for them at the same time. There can't be a happy ending for both of them (and there isn't), but this movie really is a celebration of age and what can be achieved beyond the prime of life. Bullock, Laurie and MacLaine are fine in small, less showy role, but this movie belongs squarely to Duvall and Harris.

This is a great movie, and the critic's plot summary doesn't come close to helping you decide whether or not to watch it. It's NOT a tear jerker either. With this cast you're obviously not watching any rookies or male actors lost in their macho. Every character in this movie is played superbly, and becomes so real, that you can't help but feel like you are right in the middle of a slice of life in a little town on the coast of Florida.Robert Duval (Walter) is a retired Cuban gentleman, Richard Harris (Frank) is a lonely, crusty retired sailor. Each lives alone, without any family around. They meet in the park at Franks' unwelcome prompting, and with some real reluctance on Walter's part. Shirley McClaine (Coonie) is the divorced motel landlord where Frank lives, and they go toe to toe over one issue after another, occasionally over a little Irish whiskey, including whether or not she'll let Frank get his hands on her. Sandra Bullock (Elaine) is Walter's favorite waitress at the Sweetwater Cafe, and they exchange fond jabs each time he comes around. Piper Lorie is a self respecting single lady, on whom Frank clumsily works his flawed romanatic magic in their town's only movie house.At the center of this light drama is the unlikely and rocky friendship developing between Frank and Walter. With the backdrop of a laid back little coastal town, and moving to wonderful cuban music and rhythms, each one of the characters and relationships unfolds a little at a time, and begin to cross over one another. Just as you get to know people in your life a little at a time, these folks become more and more themselves as the story unfolds.The timing, setting, filming, music, and subtleties of the characters and the script work beautifully so that you fall right into it all.The ending is tender, wistful, and the characters just seem to go their own way. This is like that book you read, where halfway through you started dreading the last few pages.

In memory of the great actor, Richard Harris, I had my own little film festival.....starting with Juggernaut and Camelot and ending with this one. He and Robert Duvall do a remarkable job of showing the joys and evils of aging, complete with forgetful son. For those of us on the same road (and who is not), this is a nice walk down pre-memory lane (shades of 'Minority Report').Harris and Duvall both play understated roles, although I am inclined to think the boozing memories of Harris may be drawn from real life. Duvall plays against type as a retiring, modest, withdrawn Cuban barber, and the loving break-up they have is as heart-breaking a scene as you will ever see. Their loneliness is made so palpable, it reaches out from the screen and grabs you.For us women, the work of Piper Laurie and Shirley MacLaine are also reminders of how we age. I wish they had put a movie with the young Piper Laurie in it up on the screen, instead of one of her contemporaries. She was acting as though she were still a beautiful young coquette, which was not sad, or demeaning but really cute. Shirley does a great acting job, as she re-lives the drunken abuse of her husband at the hands of a drunken Harris....yet reaches out to him as he falters and realizes the constraints of age.Certainly a great way to leave the scene of the living. I strongly suggest it to you.