Hope Springs

There is a word that perfectly describes Hope Springs, and that word is pleasant. This is a movie that doesn't really have anything new or interesting to say, and there's not a moment that we cannot predict before the characters do. But, it's acted well by some strong veteran actors, and the screenplay by Vanessa Taylor (TV's Game of Thrones) has some nice moments. It's one of those movies that doesn't really stand out, but you enjoy it anyway.

Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones play Kay and Arnold, both in their sixties, and they have been married to each other for 31 years. Like a lot of couples at the point they're currently at, life pretty much revolves around a routine. Arnold wakes up, eats the breakfast Kay made for him while he reads the paper, goes to work, comes home, eats the dinner Kay made for him, and then falls asleep in his easy chair while watching golf shows on TV. Eventually, Kay wakes him up so they can go to their separate bedrooms for the night. (Arnold started sleeping in a different bed when he started having back problems, and hasn't seen a reason to rejoin his wife in bed, even though his back has long since improved.) Kay is starting to feel the distance grow greater between them. Maybe she's been feeling it for a long time now. But it isn't until she comes across a book written by celebrity marriage counselor, Dr. Feld (Steve Carell) that Kay decides to do something about it.

She signs them both up for a one-on-one week-long counseling with Dr. Feld in the small town of Hope Springs in Maine. Arnold is against the idea from the start, and only agrees to come along after much cajoling and considerable guilt from Kay. The film follows them as they take Feld's week-long couples therapy course, where he digs deep into their personal doubts and desires, as well as assigns exercises to them to help them become more intimate and ultimately sexual with each other. As a story about a couple late in their life trying to find their spark for life and love again, Hope Springs works well enough, but falls short in comparison to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which came out earlier this summer, and dealt with some of the same issues in a more successful way. While both movies were certainly predictable, this one seems a bit more rigid, and follows a formula straight down the line.

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm shortchanging this movie. The three main performances are just fine, especially Tommy Lee Jones, who gets to show a certain quietness and vulnerability that he hasn't really shown in a movie before. He plays Arnold as a man who knows his marriage has problems, but probably feels it's too late to fix things, and doesn't want to rock the boat too much. Meryl Streep's Kay is a pleasant and sunny woman, who seems agreeable with the way things have been, but wishes for better for both of them. One of the aspects that appealed to me about their characters is that there is no melodrama between them. The movie does not rely on hidden secrets about infidelity, or surprising plot developments to bring them to couples counseling. They are simply a couple who have gotten into a much-too-comfortable rut, and one of them realizes that it's time to break free of it before the other one does.

I liked that honest element. It made Kay and Arnold seem like a honest couple, rather than characters in a screenplay. If the movie had held onto that honesty during the third act, I probably would have liked the movie even more than I did. Unfortunately, director David Frankel wraps the story up a bit too neatly, and relies a little too much on pop music montages to move things along. When you have big talent like Streep, Jones, and Carell in your movie, it's disappointing to see the script go in such a cookie cutter direction. You want them to be honest and likable all the time. I would say they get to be honest for about 80% of the movie, so I am recommending it. It doesn't take any chances, and plays things a bit too safe, but it's a very agreeable movie, and the lead stars give the material all they've got.

Hope Springs is not quite as good of a movie it could have been, given the talent involved both on and behind the camera. But, it's good enough. As the summer winds down, it will probably find a supportive adult audience who is tired of blockbusters. My guess is if you find yourself relating to either the characters of Kay or Arnold, you'll probably like this even more.

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