Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

jrcadams-231-553486 I loved seeing places that were familiar to me from recent visits. As I watched the film, I recognized many scenes that I have seen before. The film was released in 2016, but I saw at least parts of it years ago. The nude scenes were missing from the version I saw, so I suspect it was a TV special, and some scenes were cut.I don't know why it got some terrible reviews. I could understand it if someone thought it could be better, but at least one review was negative for every aspect of the film, acting, directing, music. It almost looked like a conspiracy! I suspect that the aborted FBI raid on the fishing vessel was cooked up for a bit of drama, but didn't actually happen. Apart from that, it was, in fact, a perfectly respectable film.

cruzanheart Well, okay, maybe the one about continuity -- I had a hard time following the time line of how long Ribisi's character was in Cuba each time ("returning on Tuesday" seemed awfully short compared to everything that happened while he was in Cuba), but I'll overlook that in favor of the story and the excellent acting by the cast. I feel that Adrian Sparks portrayed Papa in all of his flawed, tortured glory without going over the top. The audience senses the churning volcano beneath the surface that occasionally bursts forth. After reading "Hemingway in Love" this past winter, I had a greater depth of understanding for the unresolved guilt and regret that Papa carried in his later years. Joely Richardson was perfect as Mary, a woman who actually had a very interesting life all on her own but who was perpetually in the shadow of the great man. Giovanni Ribisi played his role quite well -- any woodenness belonged to the character and his repressed feelings of abandonment, not to the actor's characterization. Loved the movie, and now must read the book!

Dave McClain Sometimes the importance of a film transcends its subject matter. "Papa: Hemingway in Cuba" (R, 1:49) is one such film. It was the first Hollywood production shot on the island nation of Cuba since that country's communist revolution brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959. The gradual opening of Cuban society and subsequent easing of tensions between Cuba and the U.S. created the possibility of such a production, while depicting the twilight years of writer Ernest Hemingway served as the perfect project.The time of his residence in Cuba was the last happy period in the amazing and enigmatic life of one of America's greatest writers. Hemingway wrote as a newspaper journalist, war correspondent, short story writer, poet, playwright and novelist. He wrote in a deceptively simple style which won him the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize and influenced countless other writers. He gathered ideas and inspiration from his experiences in three different wars (both World Wars and the Spanish Civil War), living and working in several different countries in North America and Europe (including Canada, France and Austria), his passion for the outdoors (especially hunting and fishing) and his turbulent romantic life (typified in his four marriages). He was a man who survived one hospitalization for war wounds, two airplane crashes, three car accidents and several different illnesses, yet worsened his health further through a lifetime of heavy drinking. Hemingway's was a life of drama and this film excellently portrays a portion of that life."Papa: Hemingway in Cuba" tells the true story of the writer's latter years in Cuba (mostly 1957) as he befriends and mentors a rising writer named Denne Bart Petitclerc – renamed Ed Myers in this script. Ed (Giovanni Ribisi) was abandoned as a child and found inspiration in Hemingway's writing. As a young newspaper reporter, he writes, revises and then hesitates to send a fan letter to his idol. Ed's co-worker and girlfriend, Debbie Hunt (Minka Kelly), mails the letter without Ed's knowledge and Ed gets a surprise telephone call at work from Hemingway (Adrian Sparks) who invites Ed to go fishing with him in Cuba.Ed makes a number of visits to Cuba during which his friendship with Hemingway and his wife, Mary (Joely Richardson), grows, just as Hemingway's own physical and mental state deteriorates. Also going downhill is his relationship with Debbie (strained by the frequency of those trips) and the political and security situation in Cuba, which is drifting toward revolution. Ed fishes, swims, talks and socializes with the Hemingways and their diverse group of friends as he witnesses his idol's behavior become more erratic and observes incidents that demonstrate increasing danger for the government and the residents of Cuba. Through all this, Ed struggles to find his voice as a writer, to reconcile the Hemingway he got to know with his image of his literary hero and his reluctance to commit to a woman who clearly loves him."Papa: Hemingway in Cuba" is engaging, enlightening and entrancing. Actually seeing the country of Cuba (including the actual house Hemingway occupied) through the confident lens of cinematographer Ernesto Melara is both beautiful and interesting. The audience also gains a lot of insight into who this famous man was a person, much the same way as Movie Fans who saw 2011's "My Week with Marilyn", which is another true story told through the eyes of an ordinary young man who gets to spend time with his world-famous idol (although Michelle Williams' legs are much more attractive than Adrian Sparks').The story is economically told by a script from Denne Bart Petitclerc himself, who sadly died early in the production of this film, and the direction of Bob Yari, who, interestingly, has been a successful feature film producer for over 15 years (including 2004's Best Picture Oscar winner "Crash"). Bringing the film's well-conceived drama and well-written dialog to life is a stellar multi-national cast featuring award-worthy performances from Ribisi, Kelly and especially Richardson and Sparks who also happen to look a lot like the real people they are playing. All this combines to create a film which is pleasing to the eye, the ear, the intellect and the discerning moviegoer's sense of enjoyment. "A-"

jdesando "My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way." Ernest Hemingway Apropos of Hemingway's minimalism, director Bob Yari's Papa Hemingway in Cuba features his life only at the beginning of the Cuban revolution in 1959 and the end of his powers as a writer and a lover. Although it is always difficult to imagine such a gifted man giving up on life, this film is explicit about his self perceptions and his delusions.As played by look alike Adrian Sparks, Hemingway dismisses most other adults but is solicitous of a young writer/reporter, Ben Myers (Giovanni Ribisi), who has written to Hemingway and is subsequently invited to visit the manse in Cuba. Ben is really this screenwriter Denne Bart Peticlerc, who had the original experience with Hemingway.While learning to fish from the master, Ben also learns of the trouble in paradise, beginning with family and moving from there to the feds. Although such discord often begets great writing, for neither writer does it provide much inspiration.Not that Hemingway had it easy, for the FBI, the IRS, and seemingly the mob want a piece of the enormous celebrity known as Papa. Ben has his difficulties with his own absence from his love, Debbie (Minka Kelly), and inevitably incurs the wrath of the man himself for mistakenly thinking Ben is selling him out. By then, the genius was suspecting just about everyone.As in recent bios of Chet Baker and Hank Williams, the abuses of these artists become clichéd, one for alcohol, another for drugs, another for womanizing, and the list goes on. Although Hemingway's story here walks the same path, few can match the splendor of his oeuvre.I just enjoy being in his presence, and while no new territory, I am happy to be reminded that humans can achieve such a sublime state and yet be as flawed as I.That's entertainment!