I thought Wrestling Ernest Hemingway was going to be a heartwarming, lightly funny movie about old folks, like Cocoon or The Boynton Beach Club. It's not, and if you're looking for a good movie, don't watch this one.Sure, Robert Duvall has a pretty good accent as a Cuban retiree, and Sandra Bullock is well cast as a low-class but kind-hearted waitress, but this movie is pretty bad. It could have been so much better, if the screenwriters had thought a little longer. For example, at the start of the film, Richard Harris keeps talking about his son, and how excited he is to see him for a visit. Wouldn't it be an interesting twist if Richard's son was dead, but he had Alzheimer's and didn't remember? Or when Shirley MacLaine complains about her ex-husband, wouldn't it be clever if Richard Harris was her ex-husband and that's why she's always hostile towards him? I won't spoil anything, but this movie isn't very clever or twisty.It's also pretty depressing. Richard's always talking about how lonely he is, and when he reaches out for companionship, nobody likes him. It's not very inspiring to watch an old person living alone in a retirement community, trying and failing to make friends, trying and failing to have a romance, all the while melting in the Florida heat because his apartment doesn't have a working air conditioner.If you like Richard Harris, watch This Sporting Life. If you like Robert Duvall, watch A Family Thing. If you like Shirley MacLaine, watch The Apartment. You don't have to watch Wrestling Ernest Hemingway.

A few days before I saw this movie, I had watched "A Family Thing" with Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones.To see Duvall transform himself into this unassuming, soft-spoken, proud Spanish man was simply amazing. I've lived in and out of Florida all my life and he was, quite frankly, authentic. He became the quiet, Cuban man that dined next to me so often - a dignified man with impeccable manners. Sandra Bullock is not a major character, but her part should not go unnoticed. This is equally true of Shirley MacLaine and Piper Laurie - legends that lend their gifts to this beautiful film.Richard Harris and Robert Duvall are brilliant in this sweet movie. Wrestling Ernest Hemingway is a quiet joy.

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.