In Love And War (1996)

 

In Love And War - 1996

Coming up next we have 1996's "In Love And War", the true yet highly fictionalized story of the romance between a young Ernest Hemingway and the woman who nursed him back to health in Italy during World War I.  These events were the basis for Hemingway's book "A Farewell To Arms".

The film's cast includes Sandra Bullock, Chris O'Donnell, Margot Steinberg, Mackenzie Astin, Ingrid Lacey, Emilio Bonucci, and Colin Fox.

Agnes von Kurowsky is a nurse who has come to Italy from America with the Red Cross.  The newly arrived nurses serve as a beacon of hope to the people in the town they have come to work in.

Lt. Ernest Hemingway, also an America stationed in Italy, is an ambulance driver but he wishes to become a writer.

Their paths collide when Ernest is brought into the hospital where Agnes is working after being injured in battle.  Almost as soon as she starts working on him, Agnes finds herself being charmed by the younger man.

She also finds herself being romanced by a doctor at the hospital from a good Italian family.  Dr. Domenico Caracciolo takes Agnes out on tours of the town and surrounding countryside, and Agnes finds it very easy to be with him.

Ernest becomes very jealous of the doctor, and he sets out to woo Agnes himself.  Once he gets better, he, along with his friend and fellow hospital inmate Harry Villard, takes Agnes out on his own excursions.

Eventually, they give way to their feelings and become romantically involved.

In what seems like no time at all, Agnes is called to work on the front lines of the war.  She writes Ernest a quick note and heads off to join her fellow nurses.

Ernest follows her to the front, and he proposes marriage.  He also says that he is going to be sent home to America and that they should write each other daily letters.

Agnes accompanies him to the train station, and she watches as his train disappears from sight.

After a while, Dr. Caracciolo renews his attentions to Agnes.  She's asked for a weekend visit at his mother's place with her friend Mac acting as a chaperone.  Agnes isn't quite sure about it.  She doesn't have anything to wear.  "He's a doctor.  How fancy can it be?" asks Mac.

It turns out VERY fancy.  The Caracciolos are a very well-to-do family and the doctor's family residence in Venice is nothing short of palatial.  Agnes is amazed by all she sees.

While in Venice, the armistice is signed and the whole party goes out on the balcony to join in the celebrations.  Everyone breathes a sigh of relief that the war is over.

Dr. Caracciolo later takes Agnes to a hospital that he is building.  While there, he proposes to her.

Agnes decides to break off her relationship with Ernest.  In a letter that she writes, she explains that one of the reasons is their age gap.  Ernest becomes very bitter.

At a gala, Dr. Caracciolo's family basically begs Agnes to marry him.  They dance around the room together, but memories of Ernest fill her head.

Several months later and back in America, Agnes has a drink with her and Ernest's mutual friend Harry Villard.  She tells him that she didn't marry the doctor.  He tells her that Ernest is very angry with her still.

She decides to go and visit him.  What she finds is not the Ernest she knew before in Italy.  The man before her is angry, bitter, and mean, with a penchant for drinking.  Agnes finds that Ernest is unable to forgive her.

As she walks off, Agnes narrates, "I never saw Ernie again after Walloon Lake.  I often wonder what might have happened if he had taken me in his arms, but I guess his pride meant he wasn't able to forgive me.  Some say he lived with the pain of it all his life.  The hurt boy became the angry man.  The brilliant, tough adventurer who was the most famous writer of his generation."

Cast rundown:

   Sandra Bullock................................Agnes von Kurowsky

   Chris O'Donnell...............................Ernest Hemingway

   Margot Steinberg............................Mabel "Rosie" Rose

   Mackenzie Astin..............................Harry Villard

   Ingrid Lacey...................................Elsie "Mac" MacDonald

   Emilio Bonucci................................Dr. Domenico Caracciolo

   Colin Fox........................................Dr. Hemingway

And that's all for In Love And War.  The events of this book are based around Ernest Hemingway's experiences in Italy during World War I.  Those experiences became the basis for several of his stories.  Agnes von Kurowsky was fictionalized in several of them.  It was not until 1961 that her identity became known to the general public, when Hemingway's brother published a book about him.

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Hello Again (1987)

 

Hello Again - 1987

Our next film is 1987's "Hello Again", a movie about a woman who dies and comes back to life a year later to find that her "life" is completely different than when she left it.

The film's cast includes Shelley Long, Judith Ivey, Gabriel Byrne, Corbin Bernsen, Sela Ward, Austin Pendleton, Carrie Nye, Robert Lewis, Thor Fields, Madeleine Potter, and Colin Fox.

Lucy Chadman seems to have it all.  She's got a beautiful home in the suburbs, a successful plastic surgeon for a husband, and a son on his way to Columbia University.

She's also pretty clutzy.  At a dinner party at which her husband is supposed to impress his potential new bosses, Lucy gets into one mishap after the other.

Luckily for Lucy, she can rely on the support of her best friend Kim, who is also at the party.

Of further embarrassment to Lucy's husband Jason is Lucy's eccentric sister Zelda, who claims to be able to talk with dead people.  When she introduces herself to Lucy's guests she says, "I'm Lucy's sister, just enjoy."

Unhappily for Lucy, she continues to cause mishaps wherever she goes.  It seems to be unavoidable.  And she starts to become a bit depressed and disatissfied with her life.

While visiting her sister one day, Lucy takes a bite of a South Korean chicken ball.  Initially, she thinks it's quite tasty, but things go wrong very quickly.

She chokes on it, and despite everyone's best efforts, Lucy dies.  Everyone is broken-hearted by Lucy's death, especially her sister, husband, and son.  The event has different effects on each of them.

One day, Zelda finds a book called The Wisdom of Catagonia, which contains a bunch of strange spells and incantations.

Exactly one year after Lucy's death, Zelda heads to the cemetery and performs one of the rituals.

To her great surprise, Lucy returns from the dead.  Lucy is pretty surprised, too.  She has no idea that she's been dead.  And she's less than thrilled about the dress she is wearing.

Lucy goes to her house to see her husband and son, but she finds that they no longer live there.

She goes to the emergency room where she died and coincidentally meets the same doctor who proclaimed her dead, Dr. Kevin Scanlon.  At first he disbelieves her story, but eventually he decides to help her with her new lease on life.

Surprises abound for Lucy when she goes to Jason's new apartment and finds out that he's now married to her best friend Kim.

Her son is thrilled to see her.  But he's also got surprises.  Instead of going to Columbia, he opened a restaurant and is now married.  "Returning from the dead was a synch.  Life is exhausting," Lucy says.  She later exclaims, "My life just hasn't been the same since my death!"

Zelda talks with Lucy's doctor, Kevin.  She tells him that Lucy has less than thirty days to find true love or she'll go back to being dead.  Zelda doesn't know whether or not to tell Lucy.  Kevin advises her against it.

The more time he spends with her, the more Kevin finds himself falling in love with Lucy.  He even enjoys her little quirks and oddities, like mistakenly eating dog biscuits.

With her second chance at life, Lucy decides to get on with living it.  She starts looking for a job, and finds a backer so she can open up a day care center, which is her dream job.

The secret of Lucy's death and resurrection gets out, and a very eager press is ready to scoop up the story.  When asked if she has a message for the world, Lucy just says, "Hello, again".

Her best friend Kim, however, gets a bit jealous of the attention that Jason pays to Lucy.  She goes to the press and tells them that Lucy made the whole thing up and has been in hiding for a year.

But after feeling sorry for herself for a bit, Lucy decides to fight back and protect her good name.

With the help of Zelda, Lucy stages a "mock" resurrection of Kim's deceased former husband, Hastings.  With the help of Kim's former stepson (and Zelda's new boyfriend), Lucy is able to reveal things that only Hastings would know, which totally unnerves Kim.

The little play is a success, and Kim tells the crowd that she made up the whole story about Lucy because she was jealous.  (Side note: It's an extremely funny scene, very well done.)

With her good name restored, Lucy leaves the gathering with her loved ones.

Before she goes, Kevin proclaims his love for Lucy and wants to marry her, thereby ensuring that Lucy continues to live.

Cast rundown:

   Shelley Long............................Lucy Chadman

   Judith Ivey...............................Zelda

   Gabriel Byrne...........................Dr. Kevin Scanlon

   Corbin Bernsen.........................Dr. Jason Chadman

   Sela Ward................................Kim Lacey

   Austin Pendleton.......................Hastings Lacey Jr.

   Carrie Nye...............................Regina Holt

   Robert Lewis............................Phineas Devereaux

   Thor Fields...............................Danny Chadman

   Madeleine Potter.......................Felicity Glick

   Colin Fox.................................Clergyman

And that's it for Hello Again.  While the credits roll, we find out that Kevin and Lucy are married and they have twin girls.  Zelda marries Kim's former stepson and they have a son.  And Lucy is also a grandmother, as her son Danny and his wife Felicity also have a baby boy.

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