The Whole Wide World . Nashville Scene . 12-08-97

The Whole Wide World

DIRECTED BY: Dan Ireland

REVIEWED: 12-08-97

An old-fashioned melodrama of widescreen proportions, this modestly budgeted indie works as a portrait of the tortured artist, as a critique of stifling sex roles, and as a showcase for two soulful, hugely expressive actors. And unlike other romantic weepers that have reached for epic status lately, there's no mistaking the attraction here--or the tragedy. Set in the West Texas farm country of the mid-'30s, The Whole Wide World describes the tumultuous relationship between pulp writer Robert E. Howard (Vincent D'Onofrio) and aspiring author Novalyne Price (Renee Zellweger). She believes in salt-of-the-earth stories about "ordinary people," while his Conan novels are lurid yarns in which barbarian men with tree-trunk arms rescue maidens who "melt like butter on a hot skillet." By extension, their courtship has him acting out a comic-book style of macho masochism that seems tongue-in-cheek but isn't. Ultimately, it's the strength of their personalities that brings these two together and keeps them apart: He strains to meet her expectations by putting on a tie, while she refuses to abet his neurosis by settling for a workaholic, no matter how pure his pulp.

--Rob Nelson

Full Length Reviews
The Whole Wide World

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The Whole Wide World

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