Colin
Firth thinks of this as sort of the anti-Bridget
Jones' Dairy, where he's chased by two women instead of being the
man left out of the loop all the time. "For once," he says with
a smile in his interviews, "I haven't the girl to a man named
Fiennes!" (The English Patient,
Shakespeare in Love.) It's
really too bad therefore that this movie doesn't live up to expectations.
It relies on unfunny sexual humor and immorality to convince us of true
love. It starts out promising but rapidly turns into just another vague
attempt to capitalize on a good idea without proper scripting.
Traumatized
Colin Ware (Firth) has come to America from his
homeland in order to recover from his ill-fated love
with a woman who, without warning, sent him a wedding
invitation. He and Vera (Minnie Driver) had been
together for years. Closer than any man and woman
could ever be, there isn't a single memory in his past
that doesn't include her in some way or form. Choosing
a small town called Hope for his recovery, Colin
starts an art project intending to draw in charcoal
the most interesting faces in town. There's the
upright, stuffy mayor (Oliver Platt) who would
"give [him] the keys to the city on a golden
platter" if he chose to do the portrait in oils
instead. The wrinkled old man down at the local
nursing home. The pastor's son in his swimming
goggles, who gives him an entire sermon on the evils
of women and the devil whist posing. And then there's
Mandy (Heather Graham), the perky blonde who takes him
out for a counseling session and winds up getting
herself completely drunk before they've even left the
parking lot.
A
free-thinker who finds beauty in all life, is an angel
to the old folks in the nursing home where she works,
and adores butterflies, Mandy is an answer to prayer.
She brings him out of his despair and shows him that
life and love may continue after tragedy. He's finally
found his soul mate and his heart is beginning to
heal... until Vera walks into town. Classy, cultured,
and wealthy, she's the exact opposite of the little
town girl he's fallen in love with. Vera has a shock
in store for him. She's not marrying someone else --
the invitation was one enormous, horribly-gone-wrong
joke to force him to pop the question. She still loves
him, and now nothing but Mandy stands in the way
of true happiness. But Colin won't give up Mandy for
anything! Now it's up to the girls to settle this, for
Colin to make his final choice, and for it all to end
peacefully without fur flying.
The
premise of this storyline is ingenious and had the
potential to be a lot of fun. The characters are
extremely likable despite their flaws, and altogether stereotyped.
There's Vera, the upper-class British girl who isn't
allowed to smoke anywhere in America, even on a golf
course. Mandy, the quirky hippy-girl who drinks gin on
the side and finds liberty in taking off her clothes.
And then there's Colin, who is emotionally unstable
and can often either be found relentlessly sobbing
into his hands or banging his head repetitively on the
nearest glass door. There's the old couple up the
street at the grocer's who cheat him out of $50, and
the married couple who own the hotel and are
constantly scheming to get Vera out of the picture (Mary
Steenburgen, Frank Collison). The movie is quaintly
funny in an off the wall type of way, and does have
some genuinely romantic moments, like when Colin
insists on carrying Mandy twelve blocks home, or when
he points out to Vera that her family tree has a
"Catherine Zeta- married to a Jones!"
Primarily
the issue therefore lies with the scripting, and their
insistence on bringing so much negative material into
it. Language isn't really an issue aside from a single
f-word, two uses of GD, and some mild profanities.
There is no violence. But sexual innuendo,
implications, and content become problematic. Drunk
and flirtatious, Mandy strips down to her underwear
while in his apartment -- on their first date. She
dances around the room and then takes it all off (her
bare back is seen several times), before it leads to a
discussion on whether or not he too should get
undressed and if it might lead to sex. He gets as far
as taking off his pants. They then tumble into bed,
but he's too stressed to do anything and it ends
there. Later, after they've come to know one another
better, they do tumble into bed. She's seen leaving
his hotel room several times. In an attempt to lure
him back, Vera comes out in her undergarments. Her
cigarette then sets off the fire alarms and she has to
run out in the street undressed. One long-running joke
is on whether or not Colin wears underpants. The mayor
is annoyed with a canon design on a tie because it
"resembles a penis." The film concludes on a
veiled sexual innuendo.
Hope
Springs is a cute title that doesn't really fit
the nature of the film, which is slightly erratic and
hardly convincing. To a Christian audience it also has
the disservice of implying that love is all about
physical desire when in truth, that's merely a
sideline of lasting love. The only true love can come
through complete selflessness. If you're in need of
some Firth, rent The
Importance of Being Earnest instead, which is
far funnier and less problematic.
HOPE
SPRINGS
A
free-thinker who finds beauty in all life, is an angel
to the old folks in the nursing home where she works,
and adores butterflies, Mandy is an answer to prayer.
She brings him out of his despair and shows him that
life and love may continue after tragedy. He's finally
found his soul mate and his heart is beginning to
heal... until Vera walks into town. Classy, cultured,
and wealthy, she's the exact opposite of the little
town girl he's fallen in love with. Vera has a shock
in store for him. She's not marrying someone else --
the invitation was one enormous, horribly-gone-wrong
joke to force him to pop the question. She still loves
him, and now nothing but Mandy stands in the way
of true happiness. But Colin won't give up Mandy for
anything! Now it's up to the girls to settle this, for
Colin to make his final choice, and for it all to end
peacefully without fur flying.
Primarily
the issue therefore lies with the scripting, and their
insistence on bringing so much negative material into
it. Language isn't really an issue aside from a single
f-word, two uses of GD, and some mild profanities.
There is no violence. But sexual innuendo,
implications, and content become problematic. Drunk
and flirtatious, Mandy strips down to her underwear
while in his apartment -- on their first date. She
dances around the room and then takes it all off (her
bare back is seen several times), before it leads to a
discussion on whether or not he too should get
undressed and if it might lead to sex. He gets as far
as taking off his pants. They then tumble into bed,
but he's too stressed to do anything and it ends
there. Later, after they've come to know one another
better, they do tumble into bed. She's seen leaving
his hotel room several times. In an attempt to lure
him back, Vera comes out in her undergarments. Her
cigarette then sets off the fire alarms and she has to
run out in the street undressed. One long-running joke
is on whether or not Colin wears underpants. The mayor
is annoyed with a canon design on a tie because it
"resembles a penis." The film concludes on a
veiled sexual innuendo.