Hope Springs

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.

This movie was far from exceeding expectations, but then I might have expected a bit too much of it, purely due to Colin Firth. His character was as almost all his characters are, just a lot more lost than usual. None of the main characters, except maybe for Mary Steenburgen's, really knew what or who they were. The plot was rather idiotic, really (no one takes their clothes off in front of a stranger just because they feel so happy), but when a bunch of British/American stereotype jokes and a bucket full of clichés were added, enough to make a somehow cute story. Not gripping or remarkable, but cute. I think it was the childishness that appealed to me. And somehow in this era of epic movies its comforting to know that they still make these small simple movies.

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.

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

"Hope Springs" is a romcom about a forlorn and jilted English artist (Firth) who travels to a rural New England community where he falls for a babe (Graham) only to find his ex-girlfriend from the UK (Driver) is hot on the trail of reconciliation. The result is a flat, insipid, silly tale of a man caught between two women which fails at delivering quality in either romance or comedy and creates characters who aren't even very likeable. The film has its moments though they're few and far between, good production value, and the camera is in focus throughout. Beyond that there's little good which can be said of this very ordinary film which grows annoying as time wears on and will work best, if at all, for fans of the players, romcom junkies, and sentimentalists. (C)