Just saw Hope Springs

[HappyHiker]

Please go see it! And if humanly possible invite your love interest to come with you...a very special movie.

[puglogic]

I'd like to see it. I love Tommy Lee Jones and he looks quite funny in this role, at least from the trailers.

[JaneV2.0]

Two excellent actors, but I think I'll stick to the Men In Black franchise. Hope Springs looks--to me, anyway--like every other mid-life male/female marriage cliche'/stereotype chick flick ever made. I could be wrong...

[redfox]

Actually, Jane, I think you are wrong. I saw it a few nights ago, and Meryl Streep is wonderful, as always. It's not a sterotype "chick flick", except that it portrays relationship struggles in a long term marriage, and some label that as "chick flick" fare. But it's not MIB!

[iris lily]

I had decided to skip this, too, for the reasons Jane mentions, but perhaps I shouldn't now with these positive reviews. But the film I'm anxious to see is the new one about Marie Antoinette, that comes way before Hope Springs.

[Merski]

We enjoyed it and learned something from it. Our marriage was older than theirs!

[HappyHiker]

My husband and I found Hope Springs to be very different from a Chick Flick (a term I dislike, by the way. To be balanced, I call movies with lots of violence "Dick Flicks"). The only part of the movie that I took a bit of exception to was the very happy ending...but it didn't ruin the honesty of all that preceded it...And my husband enjoyed it every bit as much I did..the conversation following our viewing was very healthy for our long-term marriage!

[JaneV2.0]

"Dick flicks"--fair enough! Given my affection for Grimm, I guess that's my genre. http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/rpg/assassin.gif http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/rpg/dwarf.gif http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/rpg/orc.gif

[Wildflower]

Took my DH of 37 years to see this movie last night. He loved it! We loved it! It led to a great discussion afterwards...

This movie is not just for the long married. We went through alot of the same things that the movie was about in our 10th year of marriage...

[pinkytoe]

I liked something about this film and wondered afterwards - how could someone be married and not have had intimate relations for four years? How could the wife be so complacent? How could they live together as if everything is normal and never even share a hug? How could someone eat bacon and eggs every morning? Obviously, it was thought provoking. I didn't like the little formulaic touches though like the overly happy ending with music and everyone dancing in the sea. It felt like watching a lifestyle out of the 1950s.

[JaneV2.0]

I liked something about this film and wondered afterwards - how could someone be married and not have had intimate relations for four years? How could the wife be so complacent? How could they live together as if everything is normal and never even share a hug? How could someone eat bacon and eggs every morning? Obviously, it was thought provoking. I didn't like the little formulaic touches though like the overly happy ending with music and everyone dancing in the sea. It felt like watching a lifestyle out of the 1950s.

I wonder if movies like this (seems to be) don't just make women even more discontented with their marriages than they already are. Life rarely plays out like a romance novel, which is probably a good thing. http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/artists/viannen/viannen_115.gif

But I could happily eat bacon and eggs every morning, so what do I know? http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/artists/connie/connie_11.gif

[ApatheticNoMore]

I liked something about this film and wondered afterwards - how could someone be married and not have had intimate relations for four years? How could the wife be so complacent? How could they live together as if everything is normal and never even share a hug?

It's seems entirely possible and I'm sure it happens for quite a few people. My parents never expressed any physical affection in front of us kids. They never hugged. They never talked openly. I probably shouldn't be so jaded, but it's probably why I have never had much in the way of desire to get married.


How could someone eat bacon and eggs every morning?

what's wrong with it? Too much cholesterol? Too much routine? I usually eat a banana and nuts every breakfast, eggs are a change of pace! (usually on weekends)

[pinkytoe]

what's wrong with it? I little variety in everything they did, including breakfast, might have helped the situation.

[Wildflower]

I liked something about this film and wondered afterwards - how could someone be married and not have had intimate relations for four years? How could the wife be so complacent? How could they live together as if everything is normal and never even share a hug? How could someone eat bacon and eggs every morning? Obviously, it was thought provoking. I didn't like the little formulaic touches though like the overly happy ending with music and everyone dancing in the sea. It felt like watching a lifestyle out of the 1950s.

Watching this movie my first impression was that it was very much like my parent's marriage. I'm 54 and this movie seemed to represent a older generation to me. I feel my generation is much more free sexually, a woman wouldn't wait on her DH hand and foot like that, I mean, heavens my DH gets his own breakfast unless we mutually decide to cook breakfast together. I don't think a woman of my generation would have been so complacent either. Yet, I saw that in my Mother and her friends....

But after reflecting on the movie, I realized that it was about any relationship that has gone stale. That needed some work, some passion, and most of all communication. Like I said in an earlier post, my DH of 37 years and I went through these sort of problems in our 10th year of marriage. It almost ended our marriage. We got counseling and survived the crisis. We learned how to communicate effectively. That led to understanding, and then eventually passion again. So I totally get this movie. And our lives at that time had become one long boring routine, even though we were barely in our 30's then. Not bored now, by the way!! >8) Sometimes real life does having a happy ending...

[Karma]

I thought it was wonderful! Funny but honest at the same time. I liked how you thought one thing was the reason things were bad but then find out the real reason things went bad. It was a great twist. The acting is excellent and the the writing well done. I was glad for the happy ending and think dancing on the beach is awesome not a fairy tale!

i wonder how the people at Coldwater Creek felt about the movie, both my sister and I were like " we will never set foot in that place again!" LOL

[lmerullo]

Dh and I went to see this movie. We both enjoyed it. We've been married for 30 years - so some things ring true for us...

I agree that the story is cookie-cutter in its mentality. The reason it rings true for us, though, is that the issues are so abundant in marriage that most anyone could see it happening to them. I loved the characters of both Meryl and Tommy... they were a very good pairing!

I disagree about the waiting hand and foot being from a previous generation. While I don't actually "wait on" my husband, I am very territorial about my kitchen and prepare most meals and then serve them. Although in the movie I think it was presented as a waiting on scenario, if someone glanced into my life from the outside that's the way it would appear, while the true reasons are: I'm cleaner than dh, I am more reasonable in serving sizes, I have to work as I go - getting things out and putting them away continually, whereas he gets everything out at once and leaves it until the meal is done, then puts all away.

[razz]

OK, I went to see this last night and it made no sense to me all. I have a hearing difficulty and miss some words even with my hearing aids. I don't want to give the story away but it seemed to me that she was doing all the work and struggling to improve the marriage even to being given a book to help her get over her hangups on oral sex vs perfered initimacy via intercourse. He was the stiff-necked who couldn't perform but refused assistance.

Can someone who understood why things finally changed (sort of) please PM me so as not to spoil the movie for others? What am I missing?

Based on comments from peers, often the sexual intercourse aspect does reduce with time but the hugs and interest in one another does not. Marrriage is being both sexual partner, friend, confidant, etc. The husband had forgotten that she was a woman at all except as a housekeeper, it seems to me. I was ready to give him a swift kick in the pants and didn't feel that he changed that much in the end. Sort of, "I make the money and am boss. what else do you expect from me?" garbage.