Excellent, a Must See

Am I Missing Something?

A Disappointing Continuation

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Yes, hope springs eternal that a chick flick with Colin Firth and Minnie Driver would be mildly entertaining. I was eating a bowl full of buttered noodles while watching this, and I'm not sure which -- the noodles or the film -- was more bland.It's only been the last decade that I've begun to appreciate British cinema. This film set that back a decade.But let's begin with what's good about this film. Well, let me think. Ah -- it's filmed in New England in autumn, so it's pretty. Frank Collison who runs the local motel with Mary Steenbergen is mildly humorous, but this is a step down for Steenbergen. And, let's see...well, that's about it.Colin Firth is a fine action...who was wasted here. I always enjoy Minnie Driver...well, almost always. Heather Graham...sorry, not impressed. Oliver Platt, who's usually a fairly entertaining actor, has a nothing role here.And then there's the plot. Oddly enough, I kept thinking that maybe Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr could have saved this. But then I decided that just dusting off my DVD of "An Affair To Remember" would be better than watching this affair to be forgotten.Thumbs down. You can do better.

(warning: mild spoilers)take a simple but cute idea, the desperate guy abandoned by his fiancée, flies from the UK to the US (supposed to be Maine, but actually filmed in British Columbia), chooses his destination because the town is called "Hope", and on day two meets the cutest sweetest girl in the whole region, but also with a wild fun side so you don't get bored.add some pretty solid names in acting: Colin Firth (sure he was less famous then), Minnie Driver. Add a cute blonde who can act namely Heather Graham. In the "supporting" roles put actors of such caliber that they can do much better than just "support": Mary Steenburgen, Frank Collison, and of course Oliver Platt (who was nicely leaner back then).so, in theory, you could have done something bordering on the very good, cute, touching, powerful, and so on.but, unfortunately, the script lacks power, the direction lacks power, the whole plot logic could have been made both better and denser.so at the end of the day, we're left with a film which is fine to watch on a lazy evening with the wife, and has its cute moments - but could have been seriously better. Maybe it was too ambitious, too big budget a film, to good a crew of actors, for director Mark Hermann. Too bad.

We've all got them...those DVD's that sit for years on a shelf, those unwatched things that just sit there amongst the great and the glorious, innocuous plastic boxes that remain unopened and virginal, their cinematic delights undiscovered and dormant. But while we by-pass their mysterious entertainments in favour of their more attractive brethren, these runts of the DVD litter bide their time, like frogs hibernating in frozen mud, waiting for us to open their plastic sarcophagi and release them from their slumbers...So it was with this movie.If I say to you that it was probably the worst movie I have had the misfortune to endure for many a moon, I would be guilty of deception.It is worse than that.If I said that it was definitely the worst movie I have watched since "Have you heard about the Morgans", you may get the idea that I am, in some respects, a person whose opinion should be treated with scorn and contempt - with much justification I might add - on the very reasonable grounds that anyone who watches both of these movies is almost certainly of unsound mind and is probably compelled to howl at the moon in perpetuity.But before you reach for the silver bullets, let me at least try to prevent you from wasting a single second of your precious life on this execrable pile of steaming dung masquerading as "entertainment" by attempting a thorough analysis of what went wrong, an accident investigation report, if you will.What, you may reasonably ask, is Colin Firth - this year's hot tip for Oscar glory courtesy of The King's Speech, doing in this movie? Well, he's doing his usual stick-up-the-rectum Englishman act. Only this time he gets to see Heather Graham's only apparent talents, namely a fine pair of naked breasts. Which we don't actually get to see. Because the director keeps the camera firmly above the nipple line. Shame.Now I don't know about you but I'm a little puzzled as to exactly how Mr. Firth has managed to make a living in the acting business on account of the fact that he can't actually act. Except for portraying the same boring character, which he repeats in every role he presents for our entertainment.In short, he is a duffer, a blank-faced, uptight English twit.Which means he is almost certainly just him being himself and not acting at all.Rather like that other purveyor of English diffidence, Hugh Grant. Those of a sharp eye may have noticed that these two scions of the acting fraternity are the very same rascals responsible for the two lamentable movies I mentioned previously.Is there a pattern emerging, I hear you ask.Yes.Not only do Colin and Hugh blight our screens in the two worst movies of the century, as previously discussed, but they also appeared in tandem in the two Bridget Jones movies. A bad omen. But there's more. Mary Steenburgen, who couldn't act her way out of a paper bag, also appears in both of these abominations. Playing the same small town American character in both. Is this a conspiracy?No.And then there's the script. Or lack of it.Supposedly adapted from a novel entitled "New Cardiff", it is utter bilge. It probably appealed to Mr. Firth because he thought it an ideal showcase for his feeble talents. That and the fact he got to have a good look at Heather Graham's rather talented breasts. Nice work if you can get it.And so we come to Minnie Driver and her peculiarly shaped head.I have to admit that she possess a very memorable face. She looks like someone has planed the angles of her face from a lump of wood. Which is very apt, given her wooden acting talents.This movie is no good. It is a bad movie. Don't watch it.If you see it hibernating amongst your DVD collection, carefully remove it and put it in the nearest dustbin or better still, commit it to the flames of the nearest bonfire. If you have no bonfires in your neighbourhood due to it being in a smokeless zone, burn down your house after carefully removing everything of value except this worthless article. Then claim on your insurance and have your house re-built.

This film is about an English artist who goes to Hope in America to forget his sorrow after discovering that his fiancée is about to marry someone else."Hope Springs" is a light-hearted, bubbly, energetic and fun comedy. The story is vibrantly fun and engaging. It successfully balances between the typically English polite long-winded dialog and vibrant fun. These polar opposites clash together and create great chemistry. The main characters, Mandy and Colin are likable and sweet, which is essential in an enjoyable romantic comedy. I enjoyed watching "Hope Springs" a lot, I think it deserved to be a commercial success.