It makes sense: “The Words,” a movie largely focused on writers and the art and craft of writing, offers several nods to Ernest Hemingway.
In one sequence, a young writer (Ben Barnes, left, with co-star Zoe Saldana) sits at a Paris cafe, just after World War II, smoking, and reads Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises”; later, angry about a personal tragedy, he knocks the same book off a shelf and throws his manual typewriter on the floor.
In another passage, set in Paris, circa now, another struggling writer (Bradley Cooper) views a plaque memorializing Hemingway’s stint in the city during the 1920’s.
The film, structured as a story within a story within a story, is well written, and features several impressive acting performances, particularly Jeremy Irons as an elderly man whose long-lost manuscript is discovered, decades later, by another writer, who proceeds to pass off the book as his own.
Great to see Hemingway continuing to get much love in popular culture lately (HBO’s entertaining if misguided “Hemingway and Gellhorn”; Paula McLain’s beautifully written novel “The Paris Wife”; Woody Allen‘s “Midnight in Paris”). Meanwhile, some academics have decided, for reasons of political correctness, to disdain the great writer and his works.
“The Words,” co-written and co-directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal (making their directorial debuts), opens this Friday.
4 responses to “Hemingway Sightings in “The Words””
Nice writing Phil, as always. Keep up the good work.
Hemingway, in my humble opinion, still has a magic & perception – plus a killer style – that has aged well for those with eyes to see & ears to hear. As you well know, much of the “Hem was misogynist” stuff is countered, partly as least, by the truth that much of the best writing on Hemingway is coming from women scholars writing from a feminist POV.
Thanks, Ray. Yes, you’re right: It’s interesting to see that some feminist-oriented academics, who in seasons past would have bashed Hem for his “misogyny,” seem to have come around, in terms of appreciating the quiet beauty and directness of his writing.
His work still has the power to move, and his larger-than-life persona — not necessarily the same thing as his actual personality or lifestyle — still seems to capture the popular imagination.
Yes, I guess since the early (50s & 60s) misogyny critiques, two things at least have changed: (1) our way of reading Hem, & (2) male & female attitudes to feminist concerns. As a human being he was problematic – treatment of his wives, fights with friends etc. But like all of us, he was a child of his times. But as a writer, he still has, as you say, “the power to move.” Hence, he is able to transcend the 1920s to 1950s and be a writer for the ages.
I’m planning on watching this movie thanks to this review.