The Whole Wide World

Rating:
Summary: Solid performances and deeply moving dialogue.
Review: The other reviews, previous to mine, are accurate. This film is a deeply moving and unforgettable movie experience that I have turned to, in my mind, over and over again. The dialogue and acting are superb. The love story is gentle and sweet, yet full of passion and fire without resorting to garish displays of flesh and smut. This movie is proof that Hollywood is capable of producing much higher quality films than is the common fare seen nowadays. Why the public does not rise up and beg for more of this kind of movie, for the life of me I do not understand. With movies like this, I might actually get motivated to go to the big screen every now and then.

Rating:
Summary: Saw by accident and loved it
Review: I was watching one of the pemium channels and had never heard of this movie. D'Onofrio tapped right into this performance. Renee Zellwegger's performance was so sweet and endearing, love this girl!! I highly recommend this one!!

Rating:
Summary: Engaging film!
Review: I just can't keep my mind off this unusual film. The lead characters are so well acted! I never knew the story behind Conan the Barbarian, and the eccentic, wild behavior of Robert Howard has me mesmorized. It's such a wonderful treat to find a film with as brillant a script as this one.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect
Review: I had to see this on commercial TV, and even butchered-even though I knew it was about the life and untimely death of Conan creator, Robert E. Howard I was profoundly affected. This is a movie where everything comes together perfectly. The sets, the beautiful script, the wonderful and earnest performances. This was my intro to Renee Zellwiger and I fell in love. In fact, this movie is about, and was made with, a lot of love.

Rating:
Summary: Most delightful surprise of the video year
Review: I rented this without knowing anything about it and could not have been more pleasantly surprised and charmed. It is beautifully filmed and acted- a two hour character study of two fascinating people, love, friendship, romance and imagination. A quiet, understated film that you won't be able to get off your mind- hope the film company decides to lower the price soon so I can have a copy to replay at will.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding! A must have for REH collectors.
Review: The lives of eccentric writers like Howard or Hemmingway are often as interesting as the stories they write. Many people have written about the short life of Robert E. Howard, who seemed so out of place and at the same time so rooted in Depression Era Texas. This memorable movie tells his story more fully than it's ever been told before. The movie is at its best when its working through Howard's conflict between his passion for a "larger than life" existence vs. his inability to deal with every day problems. REH's stories like "Tigers of the Sea", "Sower's of the Thunder", "Kull", and the Conan stories gain a little depth when read with Howard's life in mind. Anyone interested in the mind of this tormented Texas writer will certainly appreciate this movie.

Rating:
Summary: A moving, exceptionally well-acted, nearly flawless movie .
Review: This film tells the unforgettable, yet little known story of schoolteacher Novalyne Price's relationship with Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian and one of the greatest of the "pulp" fiction writers. Their characters are brought to life with exceptional dignity and skill by Renee Zellweger and Vincent D'Onofrio. Their performances transcended the characters and they became, for me, Novalyne and Robert. I have seldom seen a movie that draws me in as much as this one; watching it once is not enough, and it becomes better with every viewing. The romance between the two is complex and continually frustrated by Robert's inability to simply accept Novalyne's love for him, his bizarre outbursts, and unnatural closeness to his mother. The end of their story is very painful but beautifully enacted by Renee Zellweger; I still cry every time I see it. Her portrayal of Novalyne is of a young woman full of inner strength; spunky, outspoken yet very tender and feminine. And Vincent D'Onofrio brings just the right combination of intensity and vulnerability to the role of Robert. A heartbreaking, wonderful story that deserves to be seen. Hopefully more of its kind will continue to be made.

Rating:
Summary: Where's the rest of this film? 18 Minutes are missing!
Review: According to the Internet Movie database, the film that this DVD purports to show is 111 minutes long. According to the "technical information" on the left, however, this DVD is only 93 minutes long. What happened to the remaining 18 minutes of this film? This kind of truncation of a good film is as annoying as the dropping of the key final scene in the DVD of "The Big Easy." Columbia Tristar should know better than to offer only about 7/8ths of a film -- particularly a film as good as this one -- and try to pass it off as the whole thing. Because this film is otherwise excellent, it should be shown complete, and I will refrain from buying this truncated version until Columbia Tristar issues it complete.

Rating:
Summary: Pure Magic
Review: I found this movie in a bin at Walmart for $5.50 and decided to watch it because I couldn't afford anything else and I recognized who starred in it. That was all. I had only slightly heard of Connan the Barbarian and I knew nothing of the author of that character. But loving the actors that played in this movie I gave it a chance. It was one of the best chances I've taken.

I felt many emotions through this movie. I cried through the end of it. I bawled like a baby actually. I was frustrated with Ms. Price and her stubborness at wanting a socially acceptable man. Robert Howard had his problems but I believe he wouldn't have been such a great writer had he been "normal". I laughed at some of Robert Howard's comments and marveled at his imagination. And my heart ached at the love between these two and the devestation at the end that you see in Novalyne's eyes.

This movie was filmed in 24 days on a very small budget yet you feel as if you were there in the 1930s experiencing this yourself. There is no sign in this movie that the director was inexperienced or that the actors didn't know each other before they began filming. And at times you wonder if the actors really are acting because it seems so real when watching them interact.

If you need one more reason to watch/buy this film then do it for the kiss. Sceen 15, about 54 min into the movie, you get to see the most romantic, passionate, intense, pure kiss in cinema history. I cannot think of another kiss that matches this one. All the feelings these two have been experiencing and holding back come out and are shown through this kiss. It's pure magic.

Rating:
Summary: A fine Texan love story
Review: The character she plays in THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD is my favourite role of Ms Zellweger's, apart from that of her NURSE BETTY. My favourite role of Mr D'Onofrio is the quite central one he plays in FULL METAL JACKET but his playing in THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD is invested with considerable intelligence and he does a superb job among a great team of actors in this film. Mr Ireland does a sterling job of maintaining tone and allows the work to unfold at a pace appropriate to the classic scenario of a mother not willing to let go an only son, and a lover not willing to wait until she does. A piquant and refreshing change from sentimental pap and Hollywood formula.