Hemingway’s Garden of Eden **
Without the name of the Noble Prize-winning writer in the title, this modest little effort might well have shown up on Cinemax around midnight. It’s soft core with an attractive cast, mostly excellent production values, and one really cool vintage Bugatti two-seater. The main settings are Paris and Cannes (actually Spain) in the 1920s. That’s where dashing young novelist David (Jack Huston, the disfigured sniper on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire) marries spoiled weird rich girl Catherine (Mena Suvari, the rose-petal-bedecked cheerleader in American Beauty). Her predilection for sexual kinkiness knows no limits. In short order, she has her hair done in a short platinum blonde bob, and she persuades Jack to do the same. (Few things look sillier than a man with a black mustache and platinum hair.) Eventually, they meet the gorgeous Marita (the gorgeous Caterina Murino), and Jack is inspired to write a short story about his father (Matthew Modine) killing an elephant in Africa. Things go south after that. The hanky-panky is mostly handled through dark bedroom scenes. Sparkling blue water, empty beaches and that great car are really more important, anyway.
