Hope Springs

This is a bit of silliness really. A disappointing and trite romantic comedy that skimps a little on the comedy part and batters us with romantic until we’re paralysed.

It’s a simple premise. Colin (Colin Firth) is a British portrait artist who moves to America despairing over his broken relationship. Here he meets the enigmatic and semi-free-spirited Mandy (Heather Graham, naturally stripping down to her underwear whenever required) with whom he begins a tentative relationship.

"Whining whores…?"

Enter Vera (Minnie Driver), his ex-love turning up to bring him back to England with her (and stripping down to her underwear when required). Now Colin must deal with each woman and find which his heart truly desires. Or something.

While showing some promise of going somewhere this quickly deteriorates into a sloppy he said/she said. Does Colin Firth specialise in playing the love-starved, droopy moron these days? On top of this cliché, Heather Graham jumps around half-clothed and Minnie Driver plays semi-jaded modern girl. Plus, there are a quirky bunch of co-stars who all struck me as a little clichéd too. Oliver Platt is wasted as the town mayor, as is Mary Steenburgen as the white trash hotel attendant. However, it’s not all bad, it’s just poorly envisioned with little to support the entire 88 minute framework. Too many on again/off agains, too many ill conceived jokes delivered emptily and too many sugary-fun moments that leave a slightly sour aftertaste.

And on that sparkling note, we progress to the video part…

Darker shots here, of which there are few, all manage to suffer a mild graininess, though some daylit shots do as well. Otherwise everything looks fairly good here. For a film shot in 2003 it should too.

Flesh is fine, shadow detail moderate and blacks natural looking. The full aspect ratio of 2.35:1 gets used for some colourful autumnal leaves shots, but is not utilised to its full potential. The DVD is also anamorphically enhanced with the 16:9 ratio.

A pretty clean transfer all up from Buena Vista that is well up there with their usual excellence.

We get the usual Dolby Digital 5.1 mix here, but it doesn’t do much by way of surround activity. The subwoofer kicks in occasionally with some of the vast array of radio rock that pours out at every opportunity, but not always and not really necessary. John Altman’s score can’t compete with the use of tracks hare and there are tons, literally track/scene/track/track at times. And while it’s trying to add a cool, fun feel to the film it just makes it smell more.

Dialogue is all well spoken, though some of the lines may make you wince a little at either their lame content or plain old poor delivery. The dialogue is sometimes eclipsed by the music here as well, as the levels are definitely in favour of the flogged rock.

Whatever sound effects are used all synch okay and sound invisible, which is how they should. Hmm, ‘sound invisible’… What I mean is you don’t pick up on them, not ‘inaudible’. Or something.

You may get excited to see Bonus Materials stamped on the nicely animated main menu, but the plural use is an illusion. There is but one extra here in the Making of featurette which runs for a generous 7:05 at a generous 4:3 in generous Dolby stereo.

On the surface this may sound like fun and it is... but it goes on a while longer once the fun stops. In trying to be a quirky romantic comedy, it actually succeeds in being a flat romantic story. Without romance. Well, alright, a little. However, in its attempts to sound grown up, it actually just sounds like a kid trying to sound grown up, particularly in some of the ‘mistaken moments’ that litter the landscape of films like this. Nobody just tells it like it is, they all feel they must embellish on what has been observed, which makes every character sound like a frustrated writer who isn’t very good at what he/she does.

For anyone after something mind-numbingly simple, this is worth a look, or just for anyone who wants to see yet another film in which Ms Graham drops her pants for beer money.