Well, I admit to being excited to see this film purely because Robert E. Howard is one of my all-time favourite writers, but at the same time I was disgusted when this turned out to be an obligatory romance albeit one with a messed-up male lead. I doubt that anybody involved in this actually read a Howard story, because instead of the imaginative intellectual who comes across in the writing, he's played by Vincent D'Onofrio as a loud-mouthed brute, alternating between the occasional bit of charm and random mad shouty interludes. There's little subtlety here and only one or two attempts to really get inside his head. Most of the emphasis is on Renee Zellweger; she's younger than you usually see her but just as irritating, a collection of mannerisms in place of a real performance. The whole thing's a real pity.
Review of The Whole Wide World
