Chris O'Donnell and Sandra Bullock star in Richard Attenborough's story of Hemingway's first love with Agnes Kurowsky, the red cross nurse. It's near the end of World War I and the young Hemingway finds love with an older red cross nurse behind the trenches after he's injured helping an infantryman to safety. This must be the Hallmark greeting card version of the story because the scenery is great, the period authentic, the dialog sentimental and proper, and the chemistry between the leads completely absent. O'Donnell has absolutely no zest to foreshadow the larger than life figure the famous Hemingway was.
Maybe that was part of the point Attenborough was making with the film: the romance was more of a young man's fancy than reality. This was a film made in retrospect after the discovery of Kurowsky's love letters with the young Hemingway, and it stands to reason the truth was softened somewhat to make for a romanticized story. Some viewers will question the notion implied by the epilogue of how this episode influenced the elder Hemingway. He later wrote A Farewell To Arms, which of course he based on this same episode of his life. That film, at least the older version from the thirties, is far more satisfying than what viewers will see here. This appears to have been made strictly for the Lifetime network crowd. ** of 4 stars.
Maybe that was part of the point Attenborough was making with the film: the romance was more of a young man's fancy than reality. This was a film made in retrospect after the discovery of Kurowsky's love letters with the young Hemingway, and it stands to reason the truth was softened somewhat to make for a romanticized story. Some viewers will question the notion implied by the epilogue of how this episode influenced the elder Hemingway. He later wrote A Farewell To Arms, which of course he based on this same episode of his life. That film, at least the older version from the thirties, is far more satisfying than what viewers will see here. This appears to have been made strictly for the Lifetime network crowd. ** of 4 stars.