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List Price: $14.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 12854
Released: July 29, 2003 |
| Our Price: $3.72 |
| Used Price: $2.11 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
In Texas in the 1930s, young school teacher Novalyne Price meets a handsome, eccentric and interesting young man named Robert Howard. He's a successful writer of the pulp stories of 'Conan the Barbarian'; she's an aspiring author. A friendship develops into a sort of courtship. Based on a memoir by Novalyne Price. Stars Academy Award® nominee Vincent D’Onofrio and Renée Zellweger (Chicago).
Description of The Whole Wide World:
Director Dan Ireland shows a talent for authenticity with this heartbreaking love story based on Novalyne Price's 1988 account of her prickly romance with 1930s pulp-fiction writer Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian. She was a schoolteacher in a small Texas town; he was the odd-ball writer who lived at home and created comic-book characters that were sexier and more violent than was considered decent by the locals. Renée Zellweger's performance is a gem of sweet unconventionality matched by Vincent D'Onofrio's powerful show of eccentricity and increasing mental illness. Though smart and feisty, this leaves us wishing the filmmakers had dug deeper into Howard's unusual relationship with his manipulative mother. --Rochelle O'Gorman
The Whole Wide World Reviews:
One Who Walked Alone revisted 
2009-12-07 - Novalyne Price Ellis' memoir of her association with pulp writer, Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan and other adventure heroes). Played with real warmth by Renee Zellweger and Vincent Donofrio, it tells the story of a friendship between a teacher in a small Texas town during the Depression and a local pulp fiction writer. Of all the books written over the years since his suicide in 1936, Ellis is the only person who actually knew Howard. Written when she was in her 70's, one can hope her memory was sound. Her relationship with Howard -- as well as the promise he held as a writer -- make say, "What might have been." A remarkable little film, even if you know nothing of Robert E. Howard.
*****
Having seen director Dan Ireland's review I went out and bought the earlier Canadian release. On my tv and computer I played the two different versions in synch. There was absolutely NO DIFFERENCE. They matched perfectly at the same playing time with the exact same film. No idea what in the hell he is talking about.
A must buy for Robert E. Howard fans
2009-12-05 - When I was thirteen years old I began reading something other than comic books (I still love those). I started out reading everything that Edgar Rice Burroughs had wrote, and then I did Jules Verne, and the third was Robert E. Howard. If I like an author, I read everything that they wrote and then everything I could about the author (I'm Monk level OCD). Back in the 60s there wasn't much on this great American author, so when I purchased this video a few months ago it was like an empty secret niche in my psyche had been filled. If you are anything like me when it comes to reading, or just want a good wholesome biography,and if you are fans of Vincent D'Onofrio and/or Renée Zellweger, their acting in this is wonderful. BUY IT, WATCH IT, ENJOY! Now I'm off to find Novalyne Price's novel that this was based on!
Love This Movie!
2009-09-09 - I think Renee and Vincent are wonderful actors.
I love this movie and have watched it three times
since I bought it.
Haunting, heartbreaking and amazing
2009-09-04 - The whole wide world is more than a movie.It is something special to be experienced.The film is about the author, Robert E. Howard. Creator of many pulp fiction "yarns" such as Conan the Barbarian and Solomon Kane.The story is brought to life, thanks to the memoirs (upon which the screenplay was based) of Novalyne Price.The movie is beautifully acted by Vincent D'Onofrio (Howard) and Renee Zellweger (Novalyne). In the past three days I have watched this movie 4 times. I have never done that with any movie in my entire life. This is an amazing portrayal of two people who love each other and are unable to fulfill thier love for each other because of the ill health of Howards mother and the fact that Howard is socially inept and unable to let Novalyne close to him.The musical score is masterful and brings out the emotion of the story beautifully.This story was heartbreaking. I cried through it every time I viewed it. It touched off emotions within me that I didn't know were there. Maybe not for everyone but it really struck a chord within me. The whole unrequited love theme was painful to watch and wonderful at the same time.I give it 5 stars.
An Awful, Trashy Abortion of a Little Film 
2009-02-26 - This is a tedious, throw-away, generic abortion of a romance movie that made me wish I had rather been cleaning my cats' litter box. The film's premise, that a woman tries to deal with a fellow who has difficult idiosyncracies, could have been handled deftly in someone else's hands, but here it comes across as profoundly and excitingly as the wallpaper that counts as film on the Lifetime Channel.
