There is an old cliché that says you should never meet your heroes.  Briefly, they never live up to the pedestal on which we put them.  Such thinking is unfair to the object of our affections and to the objectifiers, if you will allow me the invention.  It is easy enough to see why it is bad for those we adore in this manner because the expectations we place on them are so rarely met.  On the other side of the equation is us.  The resulting imbalance is left with us when our champions turn out less than, leaving a remainder of disappointment with mathematical certainly.  This is one of the reasons why it is so vital to have a relationship with God because He never disappoints.  Still, disappointment is the theme of Papa: Hemingway in Cuba (2015), and it is true in every sense of the word.

Before Ed Myers (Giovanni Ribisi) meets Papa: Hemingway in Cuba, he narrates his disappointing childhood.  He had been orphaned at a young age, but ran away from the Catholic orphanage to which he had been taken after his parents’ death.  At least this Catholic was momentarily cheered by seeing a nun.  After leaving, he taught himself how to write by retyping the novels of Ernest “Papa” Hemingway (Adrian Sparks), who became Ed’s idol.  Papa’s work inspired Ed to become a writer, too, and it propels the young man into a position as a reporter for the Miami Herald in the late 1950s.  Wishing to convey a debt of gratitude to the Nobel laureate, Ed scrawls a letter to Earnest but never sends it.  Leaving it in the newsroom, it is found by Debbie Hunt (Minka Kelly), a fellow journalist with the newspaper.  Ed tries to hide it, but she sends it over his embarrassed objections.  A few days later, he can hardly believe it when he gets a call from the celebrated author.  Once Ed has recovered from his shock, Papa compliments the writing and invites the young reporter to visit Cuba.  Upon arriving on the Caribbean’s largest island, Papa picks Ed up at the dock and they go fishing.  It is not the introduction he had been expecting, but it hooks Ed, if you will pardon the expression, particularly after they have a drink upon returning to land.  It is to become a series of trips to Cuba.  On the next jaunt, Ed is taken to Papa’s home instead of going to the Florida Keys with Debbie.  While at the Hemingway residence, Ed is introduced for the first time to Papa’s wife, Mary Welsh Hemingway (Joely Richardson).  Their encounter is . . . um, different?  Later, when the three of them are relaxing on the beach and talking about writing in general, she remarks that Ed does not fully understand what he is getting into by spending time with them.  This is driven home when during a subsequent visit with Papa, he wakes Ed from a nap so they can witness Cuban rebels attempting to take over the presidential palace.  Though Ed had been aware of the growing Cuban revolution, he intends his trips to be merely about spending time with Papa.  This is something in which the United States government expresses interest.  At one point, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) sends an agent to interview Ed and get the reporter to essentially spy on Papa.  Ed flatly refuses, but he is confused as to why there would be such an interest in somebody seemingly so innocuous.  The mystery is revealed when Ed decides to attend Papa’s birthday celebrations, coming at Mary’s behest.  Ed goes despite entreaties from Debbie, who wants him to run away to California with her.  When he refuses, she takes it as a sign that he does not love her.  As we shall see, he will wish that he had stayed in the United States.  At the lunch, Papa proceeds to get drunk with a number of his compatriots from the Spanish Civil War.  In this state, he pays little attention to his wife and starts complaining about receiving a $40,000 tax bill from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  She claims he is exaggerating, but during a moment of lucidity, he admits to Ed why the government might be after Papa.  The famous writer had bragged to an FBI man about knowing about Director J. Edgar Hoover’s (not pictured) proclivity for cross dressing.  There is more.  The admission comes after Ed had been secretly summoned by mafia boss Santo Trafficante (James Remar), who has come to warn Ed about the extra scrutiny being directed at Papa.  The author hears of the meeting before Ed returns to the house, and believes the guest is betraying the host.  After punching Ed, Papa is told about the information Ed had learned and is mollified.  It also brings Ed further into Papa’s trust, enough so that the journalist is aboard the boat for a weapons run for the rebels.  Ed had been told it is a mere fishing trip, but they are forced to dump the guns when they spot a coast guard cutter coming towards them.  Between all the unwanted attention, his inability to make love or write, and everything he had seen of the more violent side of life, Papa decides that he is going to commit suicide.  With Ed, Mary, and Papa’s poet friend, Evan Shipman (Shaun Toub), present, they have to convince Pape not to shoot himself.  Not long thereafter, Ed returns to Miami and to Debbie, confessing his love for her.

It is difficult to say that I loved Papa: Hemingway in Cuba.  I appreciated the fact that it was filmed on location in the title country, including in Hemingway’s actual house.  That is special and it almost makes watching the film worth it.  Almost.  There is a lot of material in it that ruins the experience, including my usual complaints about the unnecessary nudity.  Not even the brief mentions of Catholicism could salvage the content.  However, there are a few nuggets from which we can glean some useful lessons.  Much of this has to do with Papa’s wisdom, as flawed as he is as an individual.  I must confess to being guilty of wanting my divine inspiration to come from more perfect vessels.  Nonetheless, we need to have hearts ready and turned to the Lord in order to hear when we get it from unexpected sources.  To connect with issues of more immediate concern, after Ed and Papa witness the failed takeover of the president palace, and the summary executions in the street of the insurgents, they are disturbed.  Papa comments on how he hates war, adding that it is a “lousy” way to settle politics.  This dovetails neatly with Christian teaching, which will tell you that such violence is a failure of some of Jesus’ basic instructions.  It almost seems cliché anymore to say such things, but He told us to love our enemies.  Whenever killing is involved, that idea goes by the board.  More specifically, Papa advises Ed on what to do with the younger man’s life.  Given all Papa’s experiences, he does well to tell Ed to consider all decisions carefully, as well as thinking about their consequences.  This comes pretty close to St. Ignatius of Loyola’s rules of discernment.  In a broader sense, God would like to see us put other people’s feelings before our own.  We do not do that by imagining what they might be thinking, but by communicating out of a place of love.  As we see in the film, such is made more difficult when you do not love yourself, as is the case with Papa.

Because Papa: Hemingway in Cuba does not love himself, he is often thinking about suicide.  Though we do not see it here, in 1961 the real-life Hemingway takes his life.  It is the sad conclusion to the sad story of a man haunted by his success.  This is not my idea of must-see cinema.