This picture has one aspect going for it, and one that is not. I’m a sucker for any movie that depicts behind-the-scenes on movies, stage and television, like “Network” and “Waiting for Guffman,” as well as biopics about creative writers. That is what we have here.
“The Whole Wide World” is a true story, set in the 1930s, of when notable pulp fiction writer Robert Howard fell in love with a uniquely demanding school teacher named Novalyne Price. The movie is based on her memoirs and deicated to her.
The friendship between Price and Howard is very unique and it eventually turns into a courtship that takes way too long. Price always wants Howard to fit into this box of what a romantic man should be like, but Howard and his imagination are very unusual and when she finally accepts him the way he is, they finally hook up.
Before I go any further, you should know Robert Howard is the creator of the original Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja serial stories; the inventor.
Vincent D’Onofrio (Men in Black) plays Howard with one of the most original performances of a writer I’ve seen yet. Most movies I see about writers, biopics especially, present these characters as very introverted and depressive; OR, as in the case of “Finding Neverland” and “Shadowlands,” the true-life writer characters are depicted with upper class sophistication.
D’Onofrio, however, presents Howard as a loud, uneducated and cocky braggart who thinks everyone can learn from him. Another unique difference is Howard is shown at work at times and yelling out his stories as he’s typing them. I could totally related.
When I’m working on a new stage or screen play, I’m always caught reciting dialogue between characters out loud, but too myself. People think I talk to myself, but I digress, this was a solid character choice on the part of D’Onofrio, director Dan Ireland (Passionada, The Velocity of Gary) and screenwriter Michael Scott Myers. This was Myers’ only script.
In my opinion, this was D’Onofrio’s best performance I’ve seen with aspects I’ve already mentioned; PLUS, I got the feeling Howard used Conan as an alter ego to protect himself from being hurt. Very cool.
Renee Zellweger played Price and was a very nice compliment to D’Onofrio’s Howard. She didn’t impress me a whole lot until the last half hour of this nearly two hour movie.
Unfortunately, the worst thing about the movie is the pace of the romance was very slow and very dull. There was no sparks in their relationship, just a caring for one another and a very strong friendship. I was unique for sure, but not very interesting, and it dragged the movie down as a whole.
Overall, if you’re a sucker for these brands of biopics, than “The Whole Wide World” may interest you. It’s far from perfect, but very original, and they may be enough to be worth the price of a rental.
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