Director: David Frankel
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rating: B+
I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I went in expecting to enjoy it, heck even really enjoy it, but I suspected that a large part of my enjoyment was going to be the result of my overall enjoyment of bad romantic comedies. There have been more than a few movies that, while I gave them poor ratings here I really enjoyed watching and look forward to seeing again. I've seen each of the High School Musical movies more times than I care to admit and yet the highest rating I've given any of them was a C+. Hope Springs however was actually genuinely really good.
Hope Springs is about Kay (Streep) and Arnold (Jones) Soame, a pair of empty nesters who have been married for thirty-one years. For a number of years the pair have been sleeping in separate rooms and, in Kay's opinion, have essentially become two lonely people who just happen to share the same house. Finally she decides to make the necessary change and forces Arnold to go to an intensive couple's therapy with Dr. Bernard Feld (Carell) in a coastal town in Maine. The question is, are they able to let go of their reservations and the past and revitalize their marriage?
My favourite part about this movie was the chemistry between Streep and Jones. I've seen Streep in romantic and comedic roles before, but I've never seen Jones in a rom-com and wasn't really sure what to expect from him. He's the grumpy old man... and really, that's exactly who he is in Hope Springs. He's a grumpy old man married to a reserved old woman, filling very much the stereotypical roles that we've created for people of their generation. There's actually something about Kay that kind of reminded me of June Cleaver, although for a more modern era. Even as the two are struggling to over come their problems, or struggling to continue to deny the existence of said problems, there's amazing chemistry between them. It's the little touches and the little looks that they exchange. Streep provides a lot of this, but when Arnold is talking about his wife it's done in such a manner that you can't help but see the love that this man feels for his wife. Despite the fact that Jones isn't really a comedic actor I found a lot of the humour of the film was the result of him. He just has the way of giving a look that is so perfectly hilarious.
I was also really pleased by Carell's role. As I've said before, I'm always a bit iffy about him going into a movie. Sometimes he leaves me happy and sometimes he leaves me thoroughly disappointed. This time he really surprised me. His role was subtle and not exactly like what he's done before. This time Carell was someone who was stable and successful. He really pulled off therapist well.
I think the thing that I liked about this the most was the fact that there were no ridiculous gags or goofy bits. There were no big fights or any over the top scenes, instead it's this subtle, sweat journey as the distance between the couple both widens and shrinks as the film progresses - as seen very literally in the way that they sit on the couch at their therapy sessions and their other interactions. It's all very cute, very sweet, and very real.
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