Hope Springs (2012/Sony DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Film: C+

 

 

Meryl Streep is an unhappy wife whose passion with her workaholic husband Tommy Lee Jones has put their marriage in a comatose state in David Frankel’s Hope Springs (2012), but she has decided to make a last ditch effort to try and change that and the results will make or break them in this drama with some comedy that has its moments and some painfully honest work from its two leads that saves the film from its own problems.

 

Streep is dead on as the unnoticed, unloved wife who remembers better days while Jones is semi-sleepwalking through his life and does not even realize it.  We have see some of this before, usually in much worse melodramas, but they are so good here that you believe they have been married for decades.  Steve Carrell is also very good as the marriage expert who she turns to as their last hope and the screenplay by Vanessa Taylor is good.  However, the big problem is all the licensed hit music and vocal music that we get too often that gets in the way of character development and storytelling that is overdone.  It hurts this overall.  However, I liked this otherwise, thought it was bolder than similar releases of late and is definitely worth a look.  Be on the lookout for some of the brief star turns here too.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is a little soft, but has good color, some good detail and depth, plus limited motion blur, so I wondered how much better the Blu-ray likely is.  The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is also well recorded, has some soundfield, but this is a film of quiet moments too, so don’t expect a sonic wonder throughout.

 

Extras include a Gag Reel, Alternate Takes Gallery, Inside The Perfect Movie Marriage featurette and feature length audio commentary track with Director Frankel that is worth hearing after seeing the film.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo