Hope Springs [Includes Digital Copy]

Director: David Frankel David Frankel

Overview

An aging couple strive to conquer their sexual hang-ups and save their 30-year marriage from going stale by visiting a renowned couple's therapist in this comedy from director David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada, Marley & Me). After three decades of marriage, Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) still love each other deeply. But somewhere along the way, their passion for one another seems to have perished. Upon learning about a relationship therapist (Steve Carell) in Great Hope Springs whose methods have yielded incredible results, Kay pleads with Arnold to sign up for a weeklong session. Little does the committed couple realize that overcoming years of sexual repression will prove to be quite an exhausting challenge.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/04/2012
UPC:	0043396408043
Original Release:	2012
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMT
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:40:00
Sales rank:	43,824

Special Features

Gag reel; Alternate takes gallery; Inside the perfect movie marriage: Meryl Streep & Tommy Lee Jones featurette; Commentary with director David Frankel

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Meryl Streep	Kay
Tommy Lee Jones	Arnold
Steve Carell	Doctor Feld
Ben Rappaport	Brad, their son
Jean Smart	Eileen, Kay's friend
Marin Ireland	Molly, their daughter
Patch Darragh	Mark, their son-in-law
Brett Rice	Vince, Arnold's friend
Becky Ann Baker	Cora, the waitress
Elisabeth Shue	Karen, the bartender
Charles Techman	Charlie, the docent
Daniel Flaherty	Danny, the bookstore clerk,Actor
Damian Young	Mike, the innkeeper
Mimi Rogers	Carol, the neighbor
Ann Harada	Ann, the happy wife
Jack Haley	Jack, the happy husband
Susan Misner	Dana, Doctor Feld's Wife
Rony Clanton	Ronnie, the taxi driver
John Srednicki	John, the waiter
Madeline Ruskin	Maddie, Brad's girlfriend
Lee Cunningham	Lee, the unhappy wife
Paul Letersky	Paul, the unhappy husband,Paul, The Unhappy Husband
Rogina Bedell	Rogina, the exiting patient
Stephen Lee Davis	Steve, the grocery shopper
Mark Graham	Conductor,Actor
Colin Firth	Actor
Minnie Driver	Actor
Oliver Platt	Actor
Mary Steenburgen	Actor
Frank Collison	Actor
Chad Faust	Actor
Bethoe Shirkoff	Actor
Alan Giles	Actor
Dolores Drake	Actor
Howard Storey	Actor
June B. Wilde	Actor
David Boston	Man Walking on Beach
Bob Dio	Car Driver
Lori Hammel	Voices
Theodore Shapiro	Composer

Technical Credits

Vanessa Taylor

David Frankel	Director
Vanessa Taylor	Screenwriter
Todd Black	Producer
Guymon Casady	Producer
Nathan Kahane	Executive Producer,Producer
Jason Blumenthal	Executive Producer,Producer
Steve Tisch	Executive Producer,Producer
Margery Simkin	Casting
Danny Michael	Sound Mixer
Rick Chefalas	Sound Editor,Sound Effects,Sound Effects
J.C. Brotherhood	Special Effects Supervisor
Mary Bailey	Script Supervisor
David Boulton	Sound Effects
Tom Fleischman	Sound Effects
Christine Coggins	Producer
Jeffrey Harlacker	Producer
Jessie Nelson	Executive Producer

Editorial Reviews

Director David Frankel has carved out a niche delivering safe, middlebrow, vaguely poignant films that cater to an undernourished segment of the moviegoing population: people over 50. His second collaboration with Meryl Streep, Hope Springs, is exactly what you expect in both good and bad ways. Streep stars as Kay, a housewife whose marriage to taciturn, grumpy tax specialist Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) has grown stale and passionless after several decades -- they don't even sleep in the same bed anymore. In an attempt to salvage their relationship, Kay books a weeklong intensive-therapy session with Dr. Feld (Steve Carell), an expert counselor who practices in the small New England burg that gives the film its title. Feld gets the twosome to open up, practice intimacy exercises, and share their feelings with each other, but Arnold finds it hard to overcome decades of resentment, disappointment, and inertia. It shouldn't come as a surprise that this debut feature script from Vanessa Taylor plays very much like an episode of the short-lived HBO couples-in-therapy series Tell Me You Love Me: Taylor wrote two of the ten installments in the series' brief history. The only difference is that this story aims directly at AARP members. There's rich territory here for a rueful comedy or a heartbreaking drama, and it's hard to conceive of a better cast for this story. Streep and Jones are spectacular in the therapy sessions -- you can see the truth fight up through their multiple layers of fear and pain. Watch what Streep does with her hands when Kay is fearful of hearing something painful, and savor how Jones slowly sheds Arnold's gruff exterior without abandoning the character's essential nature. Carell offers flawless support as the patient, caring counselor. There aren't many comedic actors who are so comfortable letting other performers have all the big moments -- most would mug for the camera in order to get a little attention. Carell, on the other hand, has no problem letting others take center stage, and that's why he fits so well in this acting ménage à trois: Feld is such an expert at his work that he understands the sessions are not about him at all. Carell makes sure the attention stays on the stars. The actors are so good they overcome the merely functional direction. Frankel repeatedly makes sure we see exactly how close Kay and Arnold are sitting next to each other, and while that establishes the tone at the beginning of each encounter, he uses the shot so often that it becomes a heavy-handed symbol. There's too much nuance in their relationship to reduce it so often to something so simple, yet simple is the perfect adjective to describe Frankel and Taylor's approach to the material. That can have its charms -- this is certainly as straightforward a movie as you're likely to find -- but what marriage is straightforward or simple? Real relationships, even the great ones, are messy. By refusing to delve deeper, the characters come off as two-dimensional symbols whom we can relate to only because we might have experienced the same dissatisfactions, rather than three-dimensional people whose neuroses and struggles make them singular and recognizable. Thanks to the actors, the whole movie goes down smoothly. Streep and Jones are compulsively watchable -- we hang on every little movement and line reading because there's little to admire but their craft. They were up for something much more challenging and memorable than what's onscreen, but Frankel and Taylor, like so many stale marriages, get sucked into a tired routine.