We were together with some friends the other night and they were talking about a movie they had just seen, "Hope Springs". Not a TV watcher, I rarely see trailers for the latest movies so I do not know what is out there. After hearing the premise of the movie and also being told it was a good laugh, we bit and went to see it on Monday night with another couple. Thinking it would be a romantic comedy, I was surprised that it was much more than that, and maybe not that at all.
Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep play a couple who have been married for 31 years and their marriage has gone stale, I mean really stale. Meryl's character is the one who wants it fixed so she manipulates her husband into a intensive one week marriage counselling session in a remote village on the east coast.
What unfolds is an anatomy of a union gone cold and lacking in any intimacy or fun. Steve Carell (The Office) as the counsellor, is playing a straight laced figure, which is a surprise. I kept thinking he was going to come up with a zinger at any moment, but he never does.
The story gets intense and emotional as the couple struggles with honesty and intimacy. While it is at times quite funny, it is also uncomfortable because of its truthfulness.
My assessment of this movie is that it is marriage therapy, just watching it. If a couple is not helped by it, they may get help as a result, that is, if they are at all like the couple portrayed so well by Jones and Streep. I have no doubt that this movie will actually help some marriages, a change of direction for the intentions of Hollywood.
3 1/2 stars
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