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Ernest Hemingway was a writer first, a Herculean consumer of alcohol second, a fishing enthusiast third, a bullet point on the regrettably long list of suicidal geniuses fourth, and, as the trailer for the upcoming film Papa: Hemingway in Cuba has newly revealed, an action hero fifth. The timeless novelist of the Lost Generation rubbed elbows with F. Scott Fitzgerald in Paris and hunted big game on safari in Africa. But the new film finds him in a moment of repose during the twilight of his life spent in Havana. He’d ultimately take his own life while living in Idaho, but he only relocated there because things were starting to heat up in Cuba, and that’s where the new film begins.
Giovanni Ribisi stars as Ed Lynch, a Miami Globe reporter with an interest in reaching out to his idol, the great Hemingway. (The real-life figure on which his character is based was named Denne Bart Petitclerc, but no way the producers were allowing a Frenchman to be the hero of the story.) Minka Kelly is his quiet, supportive wife who happily sends her husband on his boozy adventure, and Adrian Sparks portrays the man himself. But this is no stodgy paint-by-numbers biopic; the Hemingway of Papa can still kick a little ass after a long day at the typewriter, daiquiri in hand. Hemingway and “Lynch” get caught up in Fidel Castro’s leftist coup, entering into bad business with arms dealing and some seriously shady characters. Guns will be aimed in many different directions, including at Ribisi. Will Hemingway pull the trigger? He probably will not, because Petitclerc had to survive to write his account of the encounter, but if the movie’s willing to change his name, who knows what other liberties they’ll take?
Of particular note is the fact that Papa represents the first American film production to shoot in Cuba in fifty years, having rushed in directly after the embargo was lifted last year. Judging from the trailer alone, this isn’t exactly the grand re-establishment of cultural exchange between our nations that some may have waited for, but it signals an exciting sea change. The floodgates to our island neighbors have opened. ¡Viva Cuba, and into the pool!
Papa: Hemingway in Cuba opens April 29.
(via Entertainment Weekly)
