Hope Springs

Colin Ware (Colin Firth) finds that his fiancé, Vera (Minnie Driver) is going to marry someone else. Distraught by the news he goes to the tiny town of hope in New England, where he meets a beautiful young nurse called Mandy (Heather Graham) and both their lives begin to get better. That is until Vera re-emerges with a little surprise for Colin.

There are better romantic comedies than this one, it's a little bit generic and struggles to do anything fresh or truly hilarious, but it was enjoyable and it certainly wasn't without its charm.

Firth, Graham and Driver all deliver fairly typical performances, playing character types that they have portrayed before; and the direction is perfectly OK for a film of this type, all in all its a decent film that is mildly amusing, entertaining and heartwarming enough.

6/10

After reading all the negative posts I just had to see this movie. I have visited beautiful Hope B.C. and I really like Mr. Darcy(sorry, Colin Firth). Both I and my wife found this film quite entertaining and really liked all the quirky characters. At first I didn't quite get the bedroom dance but I attributed it to her being a caring person who felt she had to do something really extreme to cheer this man up. I liked the Minnie Driver character with her constant battle to smoke a cigarette. I guess if I had gone to film school I would have seen something to condemn but as just one who watches movies for fun, I really liked it.

Okay, this is not the best movie ever made--even Colin Firth could not make it into a blockbuster hit. Nonetheless, it is quirky, fun and funny movie that is worth renting.

I read the book, New Cardiff, before seeing the movie and I have to admit, the movie captured the spirit of the book very well. Every character in the book came to life on the big screen through the cast. I loved Firth's portrayal of Colin, the artist, and his little dance in the movie. Minnie Driver's character was the most awful and annoying person ever and she does a great job of bring that to life. It is funny and, like I mentioned before, very quirky. Sure, the ending is not the most realistic but that was how the book went. I actually recommend reading the book before seeing the movie. It prepares you well for what the movie is about, just in case you had high hopes for it being an obviously fabulous movie. Instead, you will learn to like it, for all of its eccentricity.

The story so far: Broken-hearted English artist flies to a small New England town he just picked off the map to run away from a fiancée that hurt him. He meets up an an American girl and then ex-fiancée arrives and lots of fun etc etc etc

This *should* have been a good film. Three lead actors who, on their day, are more than excellent, and a script that, although formulaic in the rom-com mould, has enough changes to at least make it interesting.

So why does it fail?

None of Colin Firth, Heather Graham or Minnie Driver actually make us believe their character. I'm guessing that the film was pitched on the strengths of Firth in 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Bridget Jones' Diary' without realising that Colin Firth actually isn't Hugh Grant - mind you Grant would have failed at this film too. It needed somebody who wasn't a 'name' but then, of course, it wouldn't have got made.

In the role of the evil ex-fiancée I wonder who else they considered; Minnie Driver was an interesting choice that seemed not to work - whilst not exactly pure evil, you know the script-writers called for Cruella de Ville with a hint of niceness. Heather Graham was slightly more believable as the kooky girl-next-door type, but the stars of the show were Mary Steenburgen and Frank Collison as Joanie and Fisher.

The entire film strikes me as a money-making exercise for the studio. Throw an Englishman that the American rom-com demographics have heard of and sit back and hope the dollars come in.

I can't believe that some of the comments in here say it's the worst film ever. It's a cute, amusing little number which has some very funny lines in it (none of which appear in IMDb "memorable quotes" - which they *should*).

My only complaint is that Colin Firth appears to have forgotten to act. Minnie Driver is her usual sparkling evil self, and Heather Graham is her usual naked chicklet self. What more could you people want?

Incidentally, I saw "Love Actually" earlier in the same day, and preferred "Hope Springs".

Well - *I* liked it. 7/10 for pure entertainment value.