Wrestling Ernest Hemingway aspires to be serious about its subject. Yet in a curious way this sobriety works against it. Frank and Walt turn into schematically contrasting case studies, and the movie's sympathy for them eventually becomes patronizing.

Randa Haines' sappy, rather dull melodrama about the friendship between two eccentric old men is mostly a showcase for its stars, Robert Duvall and Richard Harris.

There aren't really any surprises, but it's a delight to see a movie which idles away without anything more pressing on its mind than people.

Wrestling Ernest Hemingway is a superior example of the Old Codgers Flick, that sub-species of the Buddy Movie dealing with lonely, disparate old-timers bonding and bellyaching in endearing fashion.