Posts tagged Great Hope Springs

“Nice Touches”

“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

Hope Springs is a comedy starring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as a couple who have been married 31 years and who spend a week taking intensive couples counseling.

You see, perhaps because they have been married 31 years, their marriage is in a deep rut. They sleep in separate bedrooms; every morning Kay cooks Arnold’s breakfast of one egg and one slice of bacon, which he eats while reading the newspaper and then leaves for work without saying anything; and every evening Arnold falls asleep in his easy chair while watching the golf channel on TV.

So, when Kay sees a book called You Can Have the Marriage You Want, by Dr. Bernard Feld, she signs up for Arnold and her to attend Dr. Feld’s Center for Intensive Couples Counseling, which is held in Great Hope Springs, Maine.

Kay says, “I want a real marriage again, Arnold.”

She tells him that she has already booked the flight, which leaves tomorrow, and when Arnold refuses to go, Kay calls a cab and leaves for the airport alone.

Well, of course, Arnold gives in, and when he shows up at the last minute and sits down next to her on the airplane, he says, “I hope you’re happy.”

Steve Carell plays Dr. Feld, but he is much more subdued than his usual comedic roles, and the laughs come from the situations that Kay and Arnold put themselves in and the things they say, as well as the things they don’t say.

In fact, Streep is a great actress without even saying anything, and Jones is no slouch, either. Carell must have picked up some acting tips from them, because even he holds his own in the Laughs Without Saying Anything category.

Kay tells Dr. Feld that Arnold doesn’t touch her anymore, when he used to touch her arm, her shoulder, just because he wanted to. And so Dr. Feld gives them an exercise for that evening back in their motel room to just put their arms around each other and hold each other.

Each session and each exercise gets more intense, and even though it might sound repetitious and boring, it isn’t.

Hope Springs has some nice touches in it–all puns intended–and this is one movie that is impossible to walk out during the closing credits.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”