Hope Springs
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.94 You Save: $6.05 (61%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.92 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of Hope Springs
Movie Review: What the ****
Summary: 2 Stars
I stumbled across this movie on my INDEMAND program from my satelite company. I was so excited to learn there was a Colin Firth romantic comedy that I had not seen. I have loved Colin since I first saw him in Pride and Prejudice in high school. (now my fav movie). This movie was such a disspointment. Heahter Grahm is just insipid in this role, and absoulutly does not fit with Colin's character. There were a few funny scenes, but in general the plot made no sense. Their was no explination for most of the events, and no reason for half of them. Skip this one and watch one of his better movies (I suggest a period peice
Movie Review: Adult Disney fare
Summary: 2 Stars
I wasn't expecting much - I rented it simply because of Colin Firth.It's nice, it's what Disney/Touchstone are coming up with for their adult audience.
But the idea that a broken-hearted man falls in love again, so quickly and almost without questioning his lost love bothers me -- can we go in and out of love that easily?
Minnie Driver is very good in a catty diva type of character.
Rent it but don't buy it.
Movie Review: Hope Springs
Summary: 2 Stars
Love Colin Firth, and the story preview sounded interesting, which is why I bought this. Disappointed, though in the acting and plot.Movie Review: One of the worst movies I've seen with otherwise good actors
Summary: 1 Stars
This movie seems to be written by a committee, which held too few meetings and got not enough catering. The directing is non-existent. The writing should have been tossed into a corner in the first place. The editing is lame; sudden quick cutting, splicing in scenes which have no introduction. It is bewildering how really good actors could have signed onto this project. The Heather Graham character is miscast -- her accent and bearing are all southern California, not Maine, not to mention her straight blond hair. (Another hackneyed blond! When will they learn? Just seeing long-straight-haired blonds these days where they don't belong is to experience being patronized -- do they think we don't recognize a mind-flattening cliche?) Her 'fun' naked scene with Firth (with her back to the camera) has no chemistry or elan or reason for being there. -- Though her acting ability shows through at times, through no fault of the film-makers', and I almost had 'hope' for the movie when it did show. No one in this film seems to understand his or her own character.
Firth comes to a small Maine town from England to forget his fiance who had -- inexplicably -- sent him an invitation to her wedding to another man. He is a portrait artist and spends his time (without explanation or preamble) doing portraits of all the town's main characters. There is a mayor whose role is unclear; I cut-and-ran 3/4 of the way through -- the ending would not have saved it and my mind was being too blunted as it was.
It is bewildering that Firth's character would fall into bed with a young woman (brought in by the motel owner as a 'healer') who has taken him to a 'garden' to cheer him up but who fast-downs about a quart of booze when she gets there; we don't know anything about why she would do that; how could someone drink even cold tea that fast? Why doesn't he stop her, or leave her as fast as he can? -- She just changes character on him; he has virtually no reaction. and makes him drive home although we subsequently see no signs of drunkeness on her part, just strange, inexplicable choices. Her behavior is not winsome enough to be called 'quirky' or 'cute'. We don't have a sense of why anybody is doing anything they do. Why does the fiance (Minnie Driver') show up and tell Firth she was only trying to make him take some action when she sent him the (now bogus) wedding invitation? Why is she so completely unlikable, even more than the other characters? Why would the artist even be with her in the first place? Who is this guy? Neither the actor, the director, nor the writer gives us any clue. Why does the Firth character fall into a 'comfortable' relationship with the fast-drinking blond when we haven't even seen it begin?
The motel owner (Mary Steenburgen) is the only person who has some (few) reasonable lines and delivers them well -- indeed I (again) had 'Hopes' for the film when she first came on screen; her Maine accent may be accurate, who knows from here in California, and shows up the Graham accent for what it is: California. Driver's 'British' accent fluctuates between what we think of as English and working class English -- we can't tell from what level of society she comes or what region in England. [This happens all too often in British movies, using Brits to do 'American' accents wrongly (either as Texan or extremely flat; no adjustment for the more flexible body language of Americans -- see the 'American' man in 'My House in Umbria') and in American movies using Americans to botch supposedly English ones. You can compare these poor attempts with the well-trained in 'Billy....' (the boy-ballet dancer movie) and 'Strange Relations', in which accents are firmly in place, making each story believable. In those flicks, also, kid actors are chosen (Billy and the kids in Strange Relations set in Liverpool) from the region from which the story is set and so are fully believable -- there are excellent actors everywhere, apparently, and findable if a casting director will look.]
Colin Firth, in this film, has few good lines, little directing suggestions, and so 'just looks' for too long a time on the screen. His character's recent loss doesn't seem to explain the lack of reaction on his part. A pity to waste such an actor -- he was absolutely great in the HBO production of 'The Importance of Being Earnest', and others, but again, the Brits seem to do movies with more attention and thought a greater percentage of the time (and our American acting Cecily in 'Earnest' (Reese Witherspoon) had a perfectly good British accent which did not stand out and make us say: $#%$#). (The Aussie playing Brenda in 'Six Feet Under' (HBO) works hard on her accent and gets it right.)
It is downright dispiriting to find capable actors lending themselves to such a script, which, as should have been obvious, was no Bridget Jones from the start.
Movie Review: Don't bother with it
Summary: 1 Stars
This movie was quite honestly one of the worst movies I have ever seen. As a huge Colin Firth fan originally from a small town in Vermont, I thought that no matter what I had heard about the film I would enjoy it. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
The main problem of the film was characterization. There were oftentimes no motivations or explanations whatsoever for the character's actions. One minute, the small town girl played by Heather Graham is working at a nursing home, then she's downing alcohol, then she's jumping around naked for absolutely no apparent reason (in fact, she doesn't even seem drunk), and all this entices the character Colin Firth to jump into bed with her. I think the Heather Graham character is supposed to be quirky, but because of the script and the way the film is cut, she comes off as schitsophrenic and unlikable. Then suddenly they are in a serious relationship which Colin dives into wholeheartedly even though he is supposed to be recovering from a breakup with his fiance (and this is no rebound relationship). Basically, the movie continues along this vein, with Minnie Driver showing up as the dark-haired British ex-fiance who you can't see ever having had a relationship with Colin (both actors are better in the much superior movie Circle of Friends). In any case, there are many more unexplained actions and wierd breakups/get back togethers before the movie thankfully ends.
Additionally, the setting is completely misused, beginning with the sign that says more than 18,000 people live in Hope. In New England, that does not classify as a small town. They could have used the autumn setting and American-ness of the people as restorative to the Colin character. The suggestion of that is there, but it is never demonstrated - instead, they go to a spot that is supposed to be nice and the Heather Graham character downs a bottle of booze, and Colin Firth's character has no real explanation or feeling in his portraits of the town's people. Although the hotel owners are fun, if unrealistic, the mayor has been written as if he were a cartoon character.
Finally, I don't neccessarily blame the actors for this awful movie, with the wierd cutting, it may have seemed like a good idea at the time. I think Colin Firth does his best at being an ambigious, but still likeable guy. Heather Graham, aside from not coming off as a small town girl at all, has absolutely nothing to work with, so you can't even blame her for the horrendous character she has. And everyone else, including Minnie Driver, is a complete caricature, although Minnie Driver incites some of the few amusing moments in the film.
I feel bad to judge this movie so harshly, but it is unneccessarily bad, and I had been hoping for something at least fun. These actors all have much better movies out there.