Hope Springs (Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

We have two films called ‘Hope Springs’, with entirely different storylines. We decided to watch the one featuring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as a married couple, which we first saw in August 2014. We couldn’t remember much about it, although I had a vague recollection of the couple sitting on a couch in a therapist’s office.

It turns out that a significant part of the film includes this particular scene - or, rather, scenes - although the therapist is a marriage enrichment expert rather than a therapist as such. But the concept is similar.

Meryl Streep is, as one would expect, superb. Her character is the middle-aged Kay who is going through a bit of a mid-life crisis. That’s not to downplay it in any way. She and her husband Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) have a daily routine that involves her getting up early, making his breakfast, watching him eat it, then when he’s left for work she tidies up the kitchen and goes to her own work in a boutique.

In the evenings he usually watches TV and drops off to sleep… and then they go up to bed, in separate bedrooms. It’s clear that all intimacy and romance have gone from the marriage, although they coexist amicably enough. Kay decides that something needs to change, and Arnold is persuaded, entirely against his wishes, to attend a marriage enrichment seminar with Dr Feld (Steve Carell). It’s very well done, and the chemistry between the two main characters - both positive and negative - is realistic.

There’s not a great deal of plot, although the ending could have gone various ways: we weren’t sure if the ‘enrichment’ would help Kay and Arnold rekindle some of their earlier feelings, or whether it would drive them apart. Or, indeed, they could have returned home and continued their life as it was previously. But plot doesn’t matter; it’s character-based, exploring emotions and the reasons some marriages grow stale without any serious problems arising. There’s a great deal that’s thought-provoking, and also several humorous moments. Once or twice we even laughed aloud at the clever scripting or timing.

We had not remembered just how explicit some of the conversations are, as Dr Feld probes more deeply into what has gone wrong, and what used to be good about the marriage and the couple’s sex life. It’s well done; it could have felt intrusive but just manages to avoid that, while asking some decidedly pointed questions. There are no bedroom scenes or nudity, and not a great deal of bad language, which is probably why the film is given a 12A rating - but I would not be comfortable with a twelve-year-old seeing this film. We would have rated it at least 15. However, since the main characters are in their fifties, it’s unlikely to appeal to anyone under the age of at least thirty.

We enjoyed watching it again, and would recommend it to any couple who have been together for at least ten years or so, whether or not they are feeling any stress or monotony in their relationship.

There are quite a few 'extras' with our DVD; we watched most of them, including some repeated scenes, some background into the making of the film, and one deleted scene.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's DVD Reviews

Hope Springs (Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones)

(Amazon UK link)

Browsing through Amazon, as I do from time to time, I was given several recommendations for films starring Meryl Streep. I very much enjoy her versatility as an actress, and the blurb for this sounded good: a lighthearted rom-com about a middle-aged couple who want to put a bit of sparkle back in their relationship. So it went on my wishlist, and I was given it for my birthday a few months ago.

It starts well: Kay (Meryl Streep) is getting fed up with her structured but humdrum life, waiting hand and foot on her husband Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones). They sleep in separate bedrooms, and their physical contact consists of a quick peck on the cheek when he leaves for the office each morning, after being served a perfectly timed cooked breakfast.

Kay finds a book about marriage, and decides to sign up for a week of intensive counselling for couples - a brave move, since Arnold does not think they have any problems, and considers Kay is just being hormonally emotional...

There are some amusing asides amidst the bittersweet start to this film, and some great one-liners scattered (albeit sparsely) throughout. The characters of Arnold and Kay seemed all too realistic; one of the extras stated that probably every long-married couple can relate to at least some parts of their relationship, and I suspect that’s partly why some people find this uncomfortable viewing.

What did surprise me were the frequent references to intimacy, not just in general terms (clearly important) but in specifics, which I would have expected to give this at least a 15 rating. Even more so once Arnold and Kay start doing the ‘exercises’ they are set by Dr Feld (Steve Carell); while there’s no nudity, very little bad language and nothing overtly explicit, there’s a great deal that’s implied, which I would not want a 12-year-old seeing.

Having said that, we did like the film very much; Meryl Streep is brilliant as a repressed, bored middle-aged woman, as different from her other roles as ever. Tommy Lee Jones has just the right amount of curmudgeonly grumpiness to make him realistic, and while at first we see him as the cause of the marriage problems, it becomes clear in the counselling sessions that their difficulties have crept up on them slowly with both bearing some responsibility.

There are several extras, mostly variations on the making of the film, including some different takes that were not used, one amusing deleted scene, and a lot of commentary.

I’d recommend this, in a guarded way, to couples who have been together for a while, whether or not they have any problems; it’s a thought-provoking script and a very different kind of film. However I would not really recommend it to anyone under the age of about 30, as I suspect younger people would find it unbelievable, perhaps even a bit gross.

Review copyright 2014 Sue's DVD Reviews