Whole Wide World review(s)
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THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD
****
Starring Vincent D'Onofrio, Renee Zellweger, Ann Wedgeworth and Harve Presnell. Directed by Dan
Ireland. Written by Michael Scott Myers. Produced by Carl-Jan Colpaert, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kevin
Reidy and Dan Ireland. A Sony Classics release. Drama. Rated PG for a substantial amount of mild
language and mature thematic elements. Running time: 111 min. Screened at the Toronto fest.
Based on the memoir "One Who Walked Alone" by Novalyne Price Ellis, this small gem is the story of the
relationship between pulp writer Robert E. Howard ("Feeling Minnesota's" Vincent D'Onofrio), the man who created "Conan the Barbarian" and "Red Sonja," and Novalyne Price ("Jerry Maguire's" Renee Zellweger), a young Texas schoolteacher who has aspirations to be a writer during the early '30s.
What's remarkable is the way that debut director Dan Ireland gives such honest appraisals of the gulf between the genders and how these two innocents attempt to bridge it. D'Onofrio gives a boisterous performance that is both
funny and touching. He plays Howard as a blustering country bumpkin whose sensitivities are masked by his macho posings. Yet Ireland and D'Onofrio get at a deeper conflict in Howard, which is the oedipal attachment he had to his mother (Ann Wedgeworth) that prevents him from having an adult relationship with another woman.
Zellweger is equally terrific, providing true verve that shows what would make her character a writer. Price is a
proper girl, but with a bold temperament and a spirit of adventure. Howard's eccentricities stir not only her deeper desires to write but also her yearnings for passionate romance (with which, sadly, Howard can't cope).
The basics of their unconsummated relationship are told in a conventional manner (and could seem all too familiar to some viewers), but the material isn't conventional at all. "The Whole Wide World" is about how a man has to outgrow his mother before he can learn to love a woman. And Ireland and the cast take the kinds of emotional risks that make this film one of the most honestly moving films of the year. -Kevin Courrier
FROM CINEMA 1 cinema1.com
The site includes a 7MB film trailer that can be downloaded.
Based on her acclaimed autobiographical book, THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD
tells the story of Novalyne Price, an attractive feisty West Texas schoolteacher and
her bittersweet, romantic and turbulent relationship with Robert E. Howard, the great
pulp fiction writer of the 1930's. Howard was the creator of such classics as Conan
the Barbarian, Red Sonya, Kull the Conqueror, Solomon Kane, etc. Price's
intense desire to become a writer initially drew her to Howard. Their brief two year
relationship met with many obstacles, including Howard's offbeat eccentric ways. But
theirs was a romance like no other; deeply passionate, intellectually stimulating, and
always challenging. This is an unforgettable love story that ultimately changed the
course of their lives. Featuring career making perormances from Renee Zellweger
(Jerry Maguire, Empire) and Vincent D'Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket, Blood
Brothers, Strange Days).
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