By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
POW! Crammed with action, “Captain America: Civil War” should really be dubbed “Avengers 2.5,” since it features a plethora of superheroes in conflict with one another.
Responding to public protests after an alarming amount of casualties…a.k.a. collateral damage…caused by their derring-do, Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) proposes the Sokovia Accords, which would limit the vigilantes’ autonomy under international law.
Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) opposes this threat to their independence, joined by his buddy Falcon (Anthony Mackie), plus Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen).
Somewhat surprisingly, Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) accedes to Ross’ proposal, along with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Vision (Paul Bettany) and a newcomer, African Prince T’Challa (Chadwich Boseman)…a.k.a. Black Panther, who will get his own feature film.
The star of their team turns out to be Stark’s youngest recruit, an eager-to-please, adolescent Spider-Man (newcomer Tom Holland) from Queens, who dazzles with an “Empire Strikes Back” maneuver during a climactic clash at an airport.
As for villains, there’s sneering, scheming Zemo (Daniel Bruhl), along with their old S.H.I.E.L.D. adversary Crossbones (Frank Grillo).
And if you didn’t see “Captain America: First Avenger” & “Winter Soldier,” you won’t appreciate the pivotal backstory between Steve Rogers and his W.W.II buddy James “Bucky” Barnes (Sebastian Stan).
Laboriously scripted by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely and directed by Anthony & Joe Russo (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”), it’s obviously a sobering commentary on repercussions from the carnage accidentally inflicted by the U.S. in the Middle East.
But it’s repetitive, crammed with far too much of everything, including cameos by Alfre Woodard, Hope Davis, Marisa Tomei and cartoonist Stan Lee. Absentees include Thor and the Hulk.
Post-credit sequences? There are two: one about Bucky Barnes and, at the very end, one about Spidey.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Captain America: Civil War” is an over-stuffed 7. It’s a superhero slog as the Marvel Cinematic Universe marches on.
Since Ernest Hemingway is my favorite novelist and this is the first Hollywood movie to be filmed in his beloved Cuba since the 1959 revolution, I had high hopes for “Papa: Hemingway in Cuba.” Unfortunately, they were dashed almost from the getgo.
Supposedly based on a true story, it’s about the friendship that develops after Ed Myers (Giovanni Ribisi), a young, idealistic Miami Herald reporter wrote a fan letter to Hemingway in the late 1950s.
“I got your letter,” Hemingway gruffly replied by phone, adding, “It’s a good letter. You like to fish?”
So that’s how Myers eagerly arrived at Finca Vigia (“lookout house”), the hacienda just outside of Havana belonging to Hemingway (Adrien Sparks) and his fourth wife, Mary (Joely Richardson), who share a penchant for nude swimming.
“This is how God made me” is the explanation.
Gamely bar-hopping around the island, Myers learns about life, love and literature – along with brewing political unrest, as Castro-led rebels battle government forces, while Papa’s suspected of gunrunning.
“They only value we have as human beings is the risks we’re willing to take,” Papa intones.
Autobiographically written by Denne Bart Petitclerc, who died in 2006, it’s filled with exposition and unconvincingly directed by producer Bob Yari (“Crash”), who was able to capture Finca Vigia (now a museum), along with other authentic Cuban vistas, including Hemingway’s fishing boat, the Pilar, under the aegis of the Cuban Film Institute.
While Adrian Sparks physically resembles then-59 year-old Hemingway, he’s never convincing as the charismatic, if quixotic adventurer whose reckless exploits ignited novels like “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “A Movable Feast” and “”The Old Man and the Sea.”
As the journalist juggling a relationship with his co-worker/girlfriend (Minka Kelly), Giovani Ribisi grows increasingly disillusioned by Hemingway’s depression, drunken rages, self-loathing and abusive behavior. While Joely Richardson does a wicked Marlene Dietrich imitation, she’s not believable, either.
On the Granger Gauge, “Papa: Hemingway in Cuba” is an uneven, tedious 3. Too bad the filmmakers didn’t heed Hemingway’s dictum about “the power of less.”
( Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
