Love and Ruin

Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson, was the star of McLain's 2011 best seller The Paris Wife. Here, Hemingway's third wife, writer Martha Gellhorn, takes center stage. The 28-year-old Gellhorn meets the already legendary writer just as she achieves national acclaim, most notably from Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, for her heartbreaking field reporting on the human toll of the Great Depression. Ambitious and independent, Gellhorn travels with Hemingway overseas to cover the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway's second wife, journalist Pauline Pfeiffer, is home with their children as Gellhorn and Hemingway begin their stormy romance against the brutal backdrop of the devastating campaign waged by General Francisco Franco. Though they attempt to ignore their feelings for each other, Hemingway and Gellhorn eventually move together to Cuba, where they live happily and write productively for a time. However, Hemingway's jealousy and neediness soon begin to smother Gellhorn, who throws herself into her career, becoming one of the most important war correspondents of her era. January LaVoy's engaging but carefully paced performance is well suited to this fast-moving, atmospheric work, which does occasionally slide into melodrama.