Review of Hope Springs (2012) by Filmchick — 25 Aug 2012

You can't ask for better than two talented, well-established actors as Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. From the very start, their characters, Kay and Arnold, were easily believable. I'm sure everyone knows a couple like them- cordial, reserved, nice people, but roommates instead of the lovers they once were.

Steve Carell's character as their marriage therapist, on the other hand, though likable, could have been played by almost anyone. He is fresh from "The Office", so perhaps some of us unfairly waited for him to be sarcastic and a bit funnier? (And was anyone else expecting Dwight to come waltzing in? No? Anyway.

..) It was a lot of fun watching Kay and Arnold muck their way through the counseling sessions and through, ahem, their "homework". I found myself at times laughing with amusement, tinged with the embarrassment one feels when they've accidentally walked in on their father changing his shorts.

It would have been a more well-rounded movie had the dialogue gone further, particularly in the counseling room. There was much discussion of feelings, and assignments to get Kay and Arnold acquainted with each other, but they could have gone further, including the differences between intimacy and sex, the areas that started them down the path to a ho-hum marriage in the first place.

All in all, I highly recommend this movie, as it's honest, real, and downright hilarious.