Um Divã para Dois

Hope Springs (2012)

*** (out of 4)

Charming comedy about a married couple (Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones) who have been together for thirty-one years but the wife starts to think they're losing everything. She forces her husband to go to a marriage counselor (Steve Carell) and soon they realize that a lot more is wrong than they thought. If you're looking for some deep, hard hitting marriage drama then I highly recommend you check out Ingmar Bergman's SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. If you're looking for some light entertainment that will make you laugh then HOPE SPRINGS is just the film for you. Yes, I understand you could argue that Streep and Jones are too talented to appear in such a simple comedy but I personally don't think it matters and especially since both of them are so enjoyable here. What really struck me is that the two really do come across as a real couple who have been together for over thirty-years. Both actors are clearly into their roles and this is especially true for Jones who easily steals the picture. He can play grumpy like no other person out there and he does a terrific job here. His replies to being pressured by the doctor have a certain comic timing, which I found downright hilarious at times. Carell is also very good as the man in the middle. He basically just has to sit there and ask questions but the actor made the role quite memorable. The film is far from perfect as there's no doubt that it starts to wear down in the final fifteen minutes or so but the two actors are simply so charming that it's still worth watching.

There are movies that come along that fall in numerous genres. The latest Hope Springs seems to be pushing the comedy but sports a story that could easily be delivering the drama so going in is already somewhat of a mystery on what to really expect. With a stellar cast of Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carell is there any way this film couldn't work on some level?

Hope Springs follows a married couple who have grown apart. They head out to Hope Springs to attempt to rekindle their lost spark, but with a skeptical husband reluctant to take on the treatment is there any chance of saving this marriage? This is one of those movies that actually hit the mark successfully being both a comedy and a drama. When it's funny it hit a lot of really funny, sometimes uncomfortable funny moments. These are not a bad thing, but more uncomfortable for the characters in the situation thus causing a bit for the audience. What makes this film go from something pretty average to deliver something a bit more is the cast. Jones and Streep have both great chemistry throughout the film and feel like a real couple during the problem times as well as the emotional affection ones. This is their movie to shine and the emotional roller coaster they both deliver really makes this film work. They bounce around from typical married couple to acting like teenagers in love like only someone with their talent could do. Carell does a great job playing the straight laced doctor, but really only serves as a buffer to help this story of these too move along. This does showcase another chance to show he is more than just a funny man, but just doesn't bring a whole lot to the film, but what he does works well. The story isn't anything all that new, but will easily affect any age couple in a relationship that have experienced something like this from the emotional moments to the comedic ones.

This is a memorable cute heartfelt movie that is usually saved for the younger cast, but gives it this new twist using the older couple. Jones and Streep show that they still have it in both the acting chops and the love story delivering some unexpected sexual humor that elevated this movie just out of average and into a fun worthwhile cute film.

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-dallas/bobby-blakey

The plot seemed simple enough, a marriage in trouble, but when you have Streep and Jones you expect a treat and the did not disappoint at all. The scenes where they are sitting with the the therapist you can cut the tension with a knife. You expect Streep to be brilliant and she is, but Jones more than hold his own. It is difficult to play a man who is unable to be vulnerable and he truly excelled.

Of course as with every cinematic experience depends on your state of mind and your demographic. The couple sitting in front of me were elderly and mid way through the movie the lady leaned over and put her head on her partner's shoulder and stayed like that through the rest of the movie. This movie does that to you, it makes you appreciate your partner more, you can almost thank them for putting up with our own shortcomings.

This is a real movie for real people ... Enjoy!

I am a single, 67 year old retiree, who has been married and divorced twice; and this movie really touched me. It acted as a sort of cinematic mirror to prompt me to reflect upon the many daily choices, or even finer gradations of volition, that make up a healthy or dysfunctional marriage or relationship of any kind. The movie was about how we create our own heaven or hell, in the house, in the kitchen, in the bedroom, and in life. We lose our grip on our passionate love affairs almost the way that dust slowly collects on the floor. Didn't I just vacuum that dust yesterday? That is how a marriage can ossify, degrade itself, as if consciousness itself were shot full of some sort of novocaine by sneaky subtle injections over the years, one feeling at a time numbed.

Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carrell are excellent and break new emotional and acting ground for all three master actors.

The movie made me think about my entire life, and it made me reflect upon my parents' marriage, too.

Tommy Lee Jones' portrayal of Arnold, a man who has been an accountant so long he can simply function on automatic with his customers, not really giving his passionate self to his business- or his marriage, ran the gamut from acceptance of various ruts to various kinds of rage, embarrassment, and stubbornness, refusal to drop his pride, or make compromises that would have been in the best interests of himself, his wife and the marriage.

The camera does not editorialize. It shows Arnold falling asleep watching golf instruction on television. The camera directly above the frying pan and close up, depicts Meryl Streep's Kay, sizzling a strip of bacon and one sunny side up egg for Arnold every day, day after day. He eats his breakfast with his back to her as he reads the paper, then gets up, every day, and gives her a peck on the check without even making eye contact, and he's off to work again- like an unemotional little engine that could.

When Sisyphus pushed that boulder up to the top of the hill, his punishment by the gods, he had to watch it roll back down to the bottom of the hill whereupon, he repeated this process - for eternity. But Sisyphus smiled - at least according to Albert Camus, he smiled. It occurred to me that relationships and marriages devolve into accommodations, and that passion, like air being spent out the tiny leaks in a worn tire, can evanesce before either party truly, deeply realizes what they are doing, what they have done. The smiles in this movie are forced, automatic, defensive, painful. Boulders are not openly acknowledged.

In this movie, every scene is slightly underplayed. No line or gesture is over the top. Almost every word of dialogue is realistic. I never felt that I was being lectured or preached to. I did think that the background music was too intrusive several times, however, almost as if someone did not trust Meryl Streep to carry the emotional load of the scene - an error of judgement. This movie needed no such authorial or directorial intrusion - That is my only criticism.

"Hope Springs" is a movie about the ingredients of happiness or lack of same, and the finesse of the actors, the director, the cinematographer and the editors is magnificent. They never stooped to dwell on any sort of cliché dialogue or acting flourishes. It was believable.

I felt that the movie really opened up my life. I wish I had seen it 45 years ago when I married for the first time. It is that good.

There is no feeling of being lonesome so crushing as being in a room with someone, in a relationship with somebody, when the feeling is gone. This couple, married thirty one years, have discovered this, as some of us have at different times in our lives.

Tommy Lee Jones is the husband, marred down in his married life that has dimmed into something he feels will never be bright again. Never expects it to be. Is perfectly willing to plod along through life as is with his anger and dismay at how things have turned out hidden and suppressed. Meryl Streep is his wife, loving and longing to be loved, feeling that marriage should not be this way, no longer feeling attractive or appreciated. Willing to come out of her shell to try for change. Elizabeth Shue, who we don't see nearly enough of lately, was excellent. I have never liked Steve Carell so much in a role as I did in his part as the marriage counselor, trying to inflate this flattened union.

Many, many couples, married for decades will feel parts, if not all of this movie, in a personal way. I go to a lot of films and the number of people in the theater for the showing of this movie was more than I've seen gathered for an afternoon in the theater in years. I mean years. That's how infrequently we have a decent movie with fabulous actors come out, with no filthy language, no gratuitous sex….nothing to detract from a solid screenplay, a story well told and well acted. This one was exasperating, touching, amusing in spots, made you smile, caused you to shake your head…..it has it all. At the end of this film, everyone…and I mean everyone…was smiling, happy that they had come to see this one. Wow. That doesn't happen often.

Perhaps the young people won't see or appreciate the truth of this film so much, but let me tell you, the young are not the only folks buying tickets to movies. And every person with a few years under his or her belt, married to the same spouse for decades, will understand it and love it!