Wrestling Ernest Hemingway

Frank (Harris) is an Irish sea-salt marooned in a quiet Florida backwater. Lonely and forgotten, he strikes up a friendship with a retiring old man in the park, Walt (Duvall), a hairdresser from Chicago. Frank is loud and full of blarney; Walt is dapper, shy and in love with the sunny young waitress (Bullock) at the local diner. They become inseparable. The relationship between two grumpy old codgers is not what you'd immediately expect from director Haines (Children of a Lesser God), or from a 21-year-old screenwriter (Steve Conrad), but then this is a film of discreet pleasures and minor miracles. 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. As good a way as any of watching the world go by.