Hope Springs is a bit like The Five Year Engagement, yet completely different. They're both about couples facing serious problems with their relationships. One couple wants to get married and the other one has been married for over thirty years. With both, you sit in the cinema expecting more of a comedy than you get, because it slowly reveals itself as more of an emotionally heavy, tear-inducing, armrest-clenching drama than a quirky little romcom. One, however, delves even deeper than the other...
Sure, there's still plenty of giggles, but here's where the differences between the two movies set in; Hope Springs never really loses track of the fact it's for adults - the jokes are for adults, it's real enough for adults and it doesn't ever wimp out. The Five Year Engagement fixes its problems in a flash, has a ridiculously cheese-filled ending and its gags are sillier, tending especially to the younger folks watching. Hope Springs on the other hand is unafraid to take us down a really difficult path, one that can get quite uncomfortable, but that forces us to warm to its main characters and desperately hope that they wind up having the happy ending they crave.
Hell, it's a long one. Watching this movie is an investment, and there's nothing worse than investing your time in something that you feel as though you get naff all out of - worse, in fact, when you're also getting ripped off, bored out of your skull with what's left of your Tango Ice Blast as the only thing keeping you going. Hope Springs isn't long in that way, no, it's long in a 'my goodness, I need to make sure everything turns out alright in the end' sort of way.
Sure, there's still plenty of giggles, but here's where the differences between the two movies set in; Hope Springs never really loses track of the fact it's for adults - the jokes are for adults, it's real enough for adults and it doesn't ever wimp out. The Five Year Engagement fixes its problems in a flash, has a ridiculously cheese-filled ending and its gags are sillier, tending especially to the younger folks watching. Hope Springs on the other hand is unafraid to take us down a really difficult path, one that can get quite uncomfortable, but that forces us to warm to its main characters and desperately hope that they wind up having the happy ending they crave.
Hell, it's a long one. Watching this movie is an investment, and there's nothing worse than investing your time in something that you feel as though you get naff all out of - worse, in fact, when you're also getting ripped off, bored out of your skull with what's left of your Tango Ice Blast as the only thing keeping you going. Hope Springs isn't long in that way, no, it's long in a 'my goodness, I need to make sure everything turns out alright in the end' sort of way.
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| Steve Carell's 'that's what she said' jokes don't go down so well during marriage counselling... |
It's realistic. Relationships and marriages that have been lacking sex for the past five years, as well as any other form of physical intimacy, are hard work. But, our two main characters have set out to put an end to their unsatisfying married lives. Well, Meryl Streep's 'Kay' has. Arnold, played by Tommy Lee Jones (who hilariously was also referred to as 'Kay' in the Men in Black films), is almost certain they'd have no trouble continuing their lives in the exact same way forever, until death. He is what most frustrated wives might call a 'bad husband'. And, while he is portrayed as an almost comically exaggerated awful husband at the start, as the story is driven forward we begin to see that there's a lot more to this chap than meets the eye. This is largely due to the presence of Steve Carell's 'Dr. Field', who manages to make it right through to the finish line without going completely zany, even for a second. He doesn't just play the role, he grabs it with both hands and makes it his and, most importantly, we're convinced. We forget he's that bloke off 'The Office', we believe he's really getting to the bottom of Kay and Arnold's problems and we're thankful that he's trying so hard because it allows us to develop little lumps in our throats when we see the couple starting to rekindle the magic from when they first met.
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| "Is this sex yet?" |
But, nothing's ever easy when you've gone so many years sleeping in separate bedrooms. The script has its moments, but it's truly the performances here that make the whole adventure stick with you. The undying love, the constant heartbreak, the clumsily trying to get your glasses off your face during sex - it's all here. And, it's not every day you go and watch a movie that tugs at your heart, making you want to reach your hands into the screen and push these people's heads together so that they're forced to sodding kiss and be happy. BE HAPPY DAMN YOU!
It might not be the sort of film you sit down to watch twice (unless of course it captures perfectly a similar dilemma in your own life - then it's probably very handy to watch more than once!) but it is without a doubt worth two of whichever gun-filled killing spree of a movie you were planning on seeing next. Watch this instead.
It might not be the sort of film you sit down to watch twice (unless of course it captures perfectly a similar dilemma in your own life - then it's probably very handy to watch more than once!) but it is without a doubt worth two of whichever gun-filled killing spree of a movie you were planning on seeing next. Watch this instead.
★★★★☆
Roo