Hope Springs - 2012

I went to see "Hope Springs" today.  My husband was working.  We'd talked about seeing it together, based on the trailer, but I am glad he missed it.  While it had comic moments, it was a little more drama than he normally enjoys. 

Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones are a couple married for 31 years.  On their anniversary we see the rut they are in.  Every day is the same.  It doesn't seem to bother Jones' Arnold, but Streep's Kay looks increasingly tired. 




She finds a book that says what she wants to hear.  You can have the marriage you want.  She decides to book a week of intensive couples therapy for the two of them in hopes of finding that intimacy again. 

After telling Arnold that she is going and leaving his ticket on the counter, she takes off on the adventure.

He meets her on the plane with a classic married couple line, "I hope you're happy."





It was interesting to see Streep so tentative and Jones so vulnerable.  The counseling sessions felt authentic.  Steve Carell as the doctor didn't add or subtract.  It really could have been anyone in that role.  His job was to lob it to the masters and watch them work. 

I wish  there'd been a little more background.   I found myself wanting to know how these two got together and what made them drift apart.  There were a couple of stories, but not enough to really flesh out their history. 



But I could have watched more from this couple.  I wanted them to find their way and fall back in love with each other.  The acting was incredible. 

Being long married myself, 23 years on the 15th, I know all about the ebb and flow of a marriage.  Sometimes you can't believe that you are married to this person.  One day the things he does are adorable, other days it is so infuriating you have to stop yourself from hitting him. 

In the last year my husband has surprised me.  I had surgery and both before and after he took such good care of me.  That wasn't the surprising part.  He treated me as if I were delicate.  Even when I wasn't feeling like I was.  We go through times where we take things for granted.  I know that sometimes I just expect things to be a certain way and more often than not he accommodates that. 

Other times I want that surprise, the spontaneity and he is there.  He knows what I like and what I don't.  We compromise.  We fight over silly things but agree on the big things.  I think that is what makes a marriage work. 

This was a good movie.  Not the kind of movie my husband would like, but then I don't make him see movies he wouldn't like.  You learn this stuff after 23 years.