henna bluetooth: Film Review: Hope Springs | Sassi Sam Girlie Gossip Files

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Film Review: Hope Springs | Sassi Sam Girlie Gossip Files

Directed by: David Frankel
Written by: Vanessa Taylor
Starring: Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell
Sassi?s Star Rating: 3/5

After 31 years of marriage, the passion has fled, the separate bedrooms are permanent and Kay is just about to give up. Her husband Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) sees nothing wrong with their arrangement, but Kay (Meryl Streep) needs it to change.

She enrolls in an intensive couple counseling session in Maine and drags Arnold, kicking and screaming about the overpriced food, with her. They meet Dr. Feld (the oddly cast Steve Carell), who sets them on a path to recovery, though the road is more than a little bumpy.

Without high quality actors like Streep and Jones this would be a tough script to pull off. The majority of the film is set in Dr. Feld?s office where they talk about every detail that is making the relationship fail. The rest are scenes of the couple awkwardly trying to fondle each other.

There is humor in the rawness of their failing marriage, and Arnold?s stubbornness. Kay?s character is a little too compliant, and by the end of the film you may wish she?d grow a pair, but overall there?s enough quality to the film. Unlike many blockbusters, the reason of the rift isn?t something big like an affair; it?s simply the passage of time. It?s very real and something many couples deal with, and the unHollywood approach to this topic is refreshing in its own way.