# Hemingway & Gellhorn

Hemingway & Gellhorn is a 2012 American biographical drama television film directed by Philip Kaufman and written by Jerry Stahl and Barbara Turner, about the lives of journalist Martha Gellhorn (Nicole Kidman) and her husband, writer Ernest Hemingway (Clive Owen). The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, and aired on HBO on May 28, 2012.

## Plot

The film tells the story of one of America's most famous literary couples. It begins in 1936 when the pair meet for the first time in a chance encounter in a Key West bar in Florida.
They encounter one another once again a year later in Spain, while both are covering the Spanish Civil War, and staying in the same hotel on the same floor. Initially, Gellhorn resists romantic advances made by the famous Hemingway, but during a bombing raid, the two find themselves trapped alone in the same room, and they are overcome by lust. They become lovers and stay in Spain until 1939. Hemingway collaborates with Joris Ivens to produce The Spanish Earth.
In 1940, Hemingway divorces his second wife so that he and Gellhorn could be married. He credits her with having inspired him to write the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), and he dedicates the work to her.
Over time, however, Gellhorn becomes more prominent in her own right, leading to certain career jealousies between the two. Gellhorn leaves Hemingway to go to Finland to cover the Winter War by herself. When she returns to the Lookout Farm in Havana, Hemingway tells her that he has divorced Pauline.
The two marry and, together, travel to China to cover the bombing attacks by Japan. In China, they interview Chiang Kai-shek and his spouse. Gellhorn is horrified after visiting an opium den. Chiang Kai-shek is fighting the Chinese Communists and Japanese invaders. The two secretly visit Zhou Enlai. Gellhorn covers D-Day in Normandy. She reports on the Dachau and Auschwitz concentration camps.
Ultimately, in 1945, Gellhorn becomes the only one of Hemingway's four wives to ask him for a divorce.

## Cast

* Nicole Kidman as Martha Gellhorn
* Clive Owen as Ernest Hemingway
* David Strathairn as John Dos Passos
* Molly Parker as Pauline Pfeiffer
* Parker Posey as Mary Welsh Hemingway
* Rodrigo Santoro as Paco Zarra (based on José Robles)
* Mark Pellegrino as Max Eastman
* Peter Coyote as Maxwell Perkins
* Lars Ulrich as Joris Ivens
* Robert Duvall as General Petrov
* Tony Shalhoub as Mikhail Koltsov
* Leonard Apeltsin as Russian Operative
* Jeffrey Jones as Charles Colebaugh
* Santiago Cabrera as Robert Capa
* Aitor Inarra as Felipe Leon
* Diane Baker as Mrs. Gellhorn
* Steven Wiig as Simo Häyhä
* Keone Young as Mr. Ma
* Joan Chen as Madame Chiang
* Malcolm Brownson as Orson Welles
* Ivonne Coll as Gypsy Crone

## Production

Pat Jackson, the film's sound effects editor, said that the biggest challenge in doing sound for the film was "making the archival footage and the live-action footage shot locally appear seamless." Much of the film was shot in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the abandoned 16th Street station in Oakland standing in for the Hotel Florida.

## Reception

The film received mixed reviews with much praise going for Nicole Kidman's portrayal of Martha Gellhorn. Mark Rozeman of Paste commented "In terms of the acting, there's little room for complaint. At 45, Kidman remains a fetching and powerful screen presence. Here, she captures Gellhorn's idealistic, gung-ho leftism without making herself sound overly self-righteous" but was less positive about Clive Owen, stating "While Owen easily embodies Hemingway's extraordinary charisma (and certainly his legendary temper), his performance is often undermined by the British actor's inability to hold his American accent." Jeremy Heilman of MovieMartyr.com agreed with Roseman's opinions, stating "Kidman is strong here as Martha Gellhorn, using her exceptional figure and old-fashioned movie star glamour to full effect" and that Owen's performance was "inconsistent, goofy one moment and strongly seductive the next." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter said, "Kidman is terrific in certain scenes and merely very good in others; there are a few too many moments of her traipsing around Spain, blond hair flying glamorously, not knowing quite what she's doing there. But for the most part, she rivets one's attention, lifting the entire enterprise by her presence. Odie Henderson, writing for RogerEbert.com, praised both actors' performances while lauding the film's throwback feeling of romance. "The actors are first-rate, down to the supporting roles...This is Kidman's best work in years, smart, brassy, funny, sexy, and tough. She brings her A-game because Owen's showier role must be legendary, a larger-than-life evocation of masculinity suited for the name Hemingway. Cinematographer Rogier Stoffers introduces Owen in a desaturated fishing sequence that culminates in an explosion of bright red blood. Owen's Hemingway grabs the bull by the horns, resisting cliché just barely enough to feel the breath of caricature on his neck. His Russian Roulette pissing contest with an uncredited, equally macho, and over-the-top Robert Duvall is a highlight of the film. Anyone with a romantic appreciation of the male gender will swoon at Owen's constantly revealed chest hair. Everyone else can worship, as Kaufman's camera does, at the altar of Kidman's lower body, with its "legs that start at her shoulders."
Mike Hale of The New York Times panned the film, characterizing it as "a disheartening misfire: a big, bland historical melodrama built on platitudes about honor and the writing life that crams in actual figures and incidents but does little to illuminate them, or to make us care about the romance at its center." In a similar vein, James Wolcott of Vanity Fair wrote that "none of the reviews quite prepared me for the unchained malady of Hemingway & Gellhorn." Of the director, he wrote, "It's as if Kaufman answered the call of wild and it turned out to be a loon." In The Huffington Post, Maureen Ryan described it as "a gigantic missed opportunity, a jaw-droppingly trying waste of time. Don't let the fancy names in the cast fool you: This is a stupid, stupid movie." Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 49% score based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 5.33/10.

### Accolades

| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
| 2012 | Online Film & Television Association Awards | Best Motion Picture or Miniseries | Hemingway & Gellhorn | Nominated |
| 2012 | Online Film & Television Association Awards | Best Actress in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Nicole Kidman | Nominated |
| 2012 | Online Film & Television Association Awards | Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | David Strathairn | Nominated |
| 2012 | Online Film & Television Association Awards | Best Direction of a Motion Picture or Miniseries | Philip Kaufman | Nominated |
| 2012 | Online Film & Television Association Awards | Best Cinematography in a Non-Series | Hemingway & Gellhorn | Nominated |
| 2012 | Online Film & Television Association Awards | Best Costume Design in a Non-Series | Hemingway & Gellhorn | Nominated |
| 2012 | Online Film & Television Association Awards | Best Makeup/Hairstyling in a Non-Series | Hemingway & Gellhorn | Nominated |
| 2012 | Online Film & Television Association Awards | Best Production Design in a Non-Series | Hemingway & Gellhorn | Nominated |
| 2012 | Online Film & Television Association Awards | Best Visual Effects in a Non-Series | Hemingway & Gellhorn | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Miniseries or Movie | Peter Kaufman, Trish Hofmann, James Gandolfini, Alexandra E. Ryan, Barbara Turner, Nancy Sanders, and Mark Armstrong | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie | Clive Owen | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie | Nicole Kidman | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie | David Strathairn | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special | Philip Kaufman | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or Movie | Geoffrey Kirkland, Nanci Noblett, and Jim Erickson | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie | Rogier Stoffers | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special | Ruth Myers and Adina Bucur | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries or a Movie | Yvette Rivas and Frances Mathias | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Outstanding Makeup for a Miniseries or a Movie (Non-Prosthetic) | Gretchen Davis, Kyra Panchenko, and Paul Pattison | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Original Dramatic Score) | Javier Navarrete | Won |
| 2012 | Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a Movie | Walter Murch | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special | Douglas Murray, Peter Horner, Kim Foscato, Steve Boeddeker, Casey Langfelder, Andrea Gard, Pat Jackson, Daniel Laurie, Goro Koyama, Andy Malcolm, and Joanie Diener | Won |
| 2012 | Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Movie | Nelson Stoll, Lora Hirschberg, Peter Horner, and Douglas Murray | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Supporting Role | Chris Morley, Kip Larsen, Nathan Abbot, and Chris Paizis | Nominated |
| 2012 | Satellite Awards | Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television | Hemingway & Gellhorn | Nominated |
| 2012 | Satellite Awards | Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television | Clive Owen | Nominated |
| 2012 | Satellite Awards | Best Actress in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television | Nicole Kidman | Nominated |
| 2012 | Television Critics Association Awards | Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries, and Specials | Hemingway & Gellhorn | Nominated |
| 2012 | Women Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Theatrically Unreleased Movie by or About Women | Hemingway & Gellhorn | Won |
| 2012 | Women's Image Network Awards | Actress Made for Television Movie | Nicole Kidman | Won |
| 2013 | American Cinema Editors Awards | Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television | Walter Murch | Won |
| 2013 | American Society of Cinematographers Awards | Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Motion Picture/Miniseries | Rogier Stoffers | Nominated |
| 2013 | Art Directors Guild Awards | Excellence in Production Design Award – Television Movie or Mini-Series | Geoffrey Kirkland, Nanci Noblett, William Beck, Gerard Howland, and Jim Erickson | Nominated |
| 2013 | Cinema Audio Society Awards | Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Movies and Mini-Series | Nelson Stoll, Lora Hirschberg, Pete Horner, Douglas Murray, Marc Blanes Matas, Andy Greenberg, and Don White | Nominated |
| 2013 | Costume Designers Guild Awards | Outstanding Made for Television Movie or Miniseries | Ruth Myers | Nominated |
| 2013 | Directors Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Miniseries | Philip Kaufman | Nominated |
| 2013 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film | Clive Owen | Nominated |
| 2013 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film | Nicole Kidman | Nominated |
| 2013 | Golden Reel Awards | Best Sound Editing – Long Form Music in Television | Joanie Diener | Won |
| 2013 | Golden Reel Awards | Best Sound Editing – Long Form Sound Effects and Foley in Television | Douglas Murray, Pete Horner, Kim Foscato, Steve Boeddeker, Andrea Gard, Pat Jackson, Casey Langfelder, Goro Koyama, and Andy Malcolm | Nominated |
| 2013 | Guild of Music Supervisors Awards | Best Music Supervision for Television Long Form and Movie | Evyen Klean | Nominated |
| 2013 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie | Clive Owen | Nominated |
| 2013 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie | Nicole Kidman | Nominated |
| 2013 | Visual Effects Society Awards | Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program | Nathan Abbot, Kip Larsen, Chris Morley, and Chris Paizis | Nominated |
| 2013 | Visual Effects Society Awards | Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program | Nathan Abbot, Shelley Campbell, Chris Morley, and Chris Paizis | Nominated |
| 2013 | Writers Guild of America Awards | Long Form – Original | Jerry Stahl and Barbara Turner | Nominated |