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Tired of the sexless complacency, Kay insists one day that she and Arnold take part in an intense, one-week couples' therapy session. In Maine. Arnold grudgingly agrees to join her in the idyllic New England hamlet of Great Hope Springs, but once he sits down on the couch, it takes a while for him even to consider opening up to the soft-spoken but persistent Dr. Bernard Feld (Steve Carell, playing a solid straight man to allow the two stars to stand out).
The therapy scenes are just exquisitely acted and paced, with body language and slight facial gestures that speak volumes. The silences provide tension and intimacy, but once these two do begin answering questions, they reveal regrets and resentments, yearnings and fantasies they'd never dared to speak aloud before.
Arnold is perpetually exasperated and emotionally closed-off but he's convinced himself he's content; Jones is doing his patented, humorously gruff persona but with some eventual vulnerability that provides shading and depth. He's great here. And Streep is just ... well, she's Meryl Streep. Lovely, slightly naive and goofy and always so accessible, she never has a moment that feels forced or false. Kay longs to be loved so desperately, your heart just aches for her -- and yet, she also may bear much of the blame for the state of her marriage.
Without a single special effect or explosion, "Hope Springs" is the unexpected summer movie with real punch.
"Hope Springs," a Columbia Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for mature thematic content involving sexuality. Running time: 99 minutes. Three stars out of four.
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Motion Picture Association of America definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
[Associated
Press;
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