The Best Way to Find Out if You Can Trust Somebody ... is to Trust Them.

Not even my hatred of Nicole Kidman seems to be able to quell my love of asshole man-writers and their stories-- especially as-told by the good folks at HBO. I question many things about Hemingway & Gellhorn: the title, the casting of both the leads, (don't get me wrong, I lovvvve Clive Owen, but not sure about him as Hemingway. I suppose I could be converted...) and the extended trailer appears to give away the entire film. Is that why HBO had it taken down?


Or was it the tone problem? From the trailer, it's hard to pin down. I love couples who drink like fish, share a passion and call each other by their last names too... but what is this movie? Quirky, zany, ditzy?.... or melodrama? (all of these being Kidman's familiar territory). There's a Spanish Civil War, Chinese Communism and WWII to contend with, and yet Kidman's greatest feat here seems to be her ability to drop her voice an octave. If she could get an Oscar for wearing a prosthetic nose, just think what will happen now!


Aside from that, it appears to be fairly well-written (by Jerry Stahl and Barbara Turner, mother of Jennifer Jason Leigh) and it walks right on that line I'm wearing out all day every day about the nature of these competitive artistic relationships. I love it. The more people keep doing these, the more it forces me to write it fresher. Bring it on. 


Anyhow, HBO rarely just genuinely drops the ball. So I'm going to go into this with a positive attitude. I mean, they even appear to be using some of Hemingway's best one- liners including my favorite, "The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them." So relevant. All the time.