Hemingway: Winner Takes Nothing

Ostensibly a documentary in which model/actress Margaux Hemingway, with her husband-of-the-moment Bernard Foucher, follows in the footsteps of her famed grandfather across the Europe he knew and loved so well, this film is really more like a study in the decline of a marginally talented exhibitionist. Margaux Hemingway was a famous model in the 1970s who made the typical mistake of assuming that because she had good cheekbones she could, therefore, act. She was mistaken. Hemingway is basically Margaux feeding off Ernest's legend, in the process revealing more than anyone really wanted to know about her neurotic predilections and the futility of her life. Whether we're listening to Jack Hemingway rambling on about his father while tying flies or watching Margaux and Foucher wander around lost in the streets of Venice, the feeling that this film has no raison d'être is pervasive. In fact, if Margaux hadn't committed suicide in 1996, this documentary would probably never have seen the light of day. Not recommended. (P. Van Vleck)