Hemingway and Gellhorn (2012)

Plot: HBO Biopic about  Martha Gellhorn and her relationship with Earnest Hemingway.
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Clive Owens, Robert Duvall
Best Quote: Done by noon... drunk by 3:00. That's my philosophy.
Most Annoying Prop:  Clive Owens constantly smoking a cigar. Hemingway didn't smoke. And it makes Owens look like Groucho Marx.

Borderline adequate Biopic about two extremely interesting people.  H&G suffers from the usual Biopic problems:

• The movie is chained to actual events and people - which can be a problem. Unlike fictional characters, real people have an unfortunate tendency to be undramatic, unromantic, and contradictory. Nor do their lives follow a dramatic arc. 
• The actors are often less intelligent and charismatic then the Biopic subjects. 
• "Real people" are often selfish/nasty - we need lots of "whitewash"to make them into heroes. 

In addition,  H&G can't decide what it wants to be. Is it a love story, a "You Go Girl" Feminist tale, or a Spanish Civil War drama?  And it fails at all three. Clive Owns and Kidman have zero chemistry, they don't even seem to like each other. The feminist angle is undercut by showing Kidman as subservient to Hemingway and softening her character. And the Spanish Civil war is reduced to an exciting adventure that allows Hem and Martha to show how brave and politically "woke" they are. The poor Spaniards are caricatured as either simple peasant folk or cartoon revolutionaries.

The dialogue is poor.  The scriptwriter even butchers Hemingway's quip about Gellhorn. "Marty loves mankind, its people she can't stand" is transformed into a clunky "That woman loves humanity, but can't stand people".

The Softening of Martha Gellhorn

Gellhorn was a good looking, charismatic, intelligent woman who never lacked for friends or lovers. She lived life her own way, and loved to go alone on adventures. But Gellhorn didn't believe in religion or marriage, and she had zero qualms about going after married men.  If a woman couldn't keep her man - tough.  Nor was she interested in being polite or "nice" to anyone not a friend. Tradesmen were stiffed, servants fired, storekeepers insulted. She didn't "suffer fools gladly" and anyone who bored her was cut out immediately - forever. This also applied to politics.  Anyone who criticized Israel, more than once, was gone for good.

Gellhorn even called her adopted son a "loser" and a "Bore" and didn't speak to him for 5 years. She was also a communist/hardcore leftist, and never said a bad word about Stalin, Mao, or any other Communist dictator.

The movie tries to make her more likable and mold her into a spunky - but nice - movie heroine. 

• In the movie, the "Hem and Marty" have a chance meeting in Key West and later in Madrid. Hemingway chases her, hits on her, and finally she she gives in.  In reality, Gellhorn went after him, had sex with Hemingway straightaway and in 1937 followed him to Spain.
• In the movie, Kidman is delighted when Pauline grants Hemingway a divorce. In reality, Gellhorn didn't care, and didn't care about getting married. 
• In the movie, Kidman hurries to Hemingway's bedside when he's injured and is full of concern. In reality, Gelllhorn had no sympathy for Hemingway's "idiocy" and burst out laughing when she saw his head dressed in an "absurd" bandage
• In the movie, Kidman is shocked at Hemingway's cruel treatment of Dos Passos when communists execute his friend. In reality, Gellhorn was even more cold-blooded the "Papa" about the need to overlook Communist atrocities.
• In the movie, Kidman wants to keep their relationship going. In reality, Gellhorn had tired of  Hemingway and decided on divorcing him before she went to England in May 1944.