This afternoon, we went with family and friends to see the movie, Hope Springs starring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. This is a story about a couple who has been married 32 years but who are disconnected emotionally and sexually from one another. Steve Carrell plays their marriage/sex therapist and you watch as this estranged couple work to break through the barriers that are keeping them apart. It is symbolic of the distance that naturally occurs when people don’t take the risk to push past fear and tell the truth about how they feel.
One of our friends overheard some kids coming out of the movie. “I thought is was good,” the young woman said to her boyfriend, “but I don’t really like seeing old people having sex.”
Ah, an interesting comment. Clearly this movie was aimed at those of us in the baby boomer generation who are closer in age to Streep and Jones and who understand about the unhealthy patterns that can develop in marital relationships.
Would I recommend this movie? Yes, but with a slight hesitation. The acting is superb by all. Post-fifties angst is palpable and there are no quick and easy solutions for Jones as a grouch and Streep as the pent-up wife who yearns for more. I wanted perhaps a little more clarity regarding Jones’s anger. Though he explains that she (Meryl) started it all with her refusal to openly accept his advances, it feels as if Jones has a secret which he is not sharing. He even alludes to it in the film. Alas, we never learn what that secret is and I left the theater still wondering. Still, I applaud the subject matter – older people have sexual troubles, too – and I suspect the producers were well aware this could have limited box office sales. Kudos to them for tackling this.
Go see Hope Springs if you get a chance. The story telling is not flawless, but it is funny and poignant and features two of the best actors of out time. Seeing them would be enough to make this movie a must-see, but add in subject matter tough to talk about and you have a double incentive to head to the theater.
Happy movie viewing. And remember to nourish your muse by reading and watching good stories.
This process can lead to inspired writing.
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