Hope Floats

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Harry Connick Jr., Gena Rowlands, Mae Whitman, Michael Pare, Cameron Finley, Rosanna Arquette
Directed by: Forest Whitaker
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama, Romance
1998

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A woman (Sandra Bullock) is devastated when she learns her husband has been having an affair with her best friend (Rosanna Arquette). She moves back home with her daughter (Mae Whitman) and tries to start over.

Review:

Tim: Hope Floats, but do you know what else floats? Feces. I apologize immediately for that crude and inappropriate metaphor. It's probably not fully accurate to call this movie "feces", but I can't claim to have enjoyed it all that much. I like Forest Whitaker, but I like him in front of the camera much better than behind it. There might have been solid aspects to this movie, but in Whitaker's inexperienced hands (this is only his second feature film), this movie comes across as an overly long (1 hour, 54 minutes is too long), boring, redundant movie. This felt interchangeable with a dozen other films out there. I didn't enjoy this movie.

A big part of my problem is that I never loved the characters. It's a sad, unfair, terrible thing that Sandra Bullock's Birdee experiences on national television. I certainly would never wish that on anyone. But, why should I care? That mortifying experience isn't enough to make me like her character. She struggles with the aftermath and there's family drama, but the characters themselves never tugged at my heartstrings. I cared the most about Birdee's daughter, played exceptionally well by Mae Whitman. I did feel some emotional stirrings for her. But, for just about everyone else, it wasn't there. The movie is incredibly predictable. As soon as we see Harry Connick Jr. (even if he didn't see the DVD cover), it's obvious that they are going to get together. Their path wasn't especially interesting and it didn't offer anything we haven't seen before. There were no especially romantic moments (at least none that really stood out or were memorable). I didn't really care all that much about Connick's character, so I was less invested in their budding romance. I was more interested in the bully subplot for Birdee's daughter, although that kind of fizzled out. There's too much here and Whitaker isn't able to balance it appropriately. It ends up feeling like a little bit of a mess.

Bullock is at least decent in the film- this is playing to her strengths. I don't think the script or the dialogue helped her, but I genuinely believe she tried. Connick Jr. was probably not the right person for the role. He has a few strong moments, but was generally average. Gena Rowlands has some great scenes in a bit of a scene-stealing supporting role, and Mae Whitman adds a strong performance for such a young actress. The cast is certainly game, but there was too much holding them back.

It also felt like so much was thrown up on screen, it's not surprising that it didn't all stick. We are supposed to care about Bullock and her daughter, and then we add in Rowlands as Bullock's mother. There's the love interest in Connick Jr. That's already quite a bit. We also get another cousin- I can't remember his name (it might be Travis, I just looked it up but am still not 100% sure). I didn't quite get what was going on with him. He was obviously dealing with some family difficulties. These were touched on but never fully explored. His whole character felt a bit disconnected from everything else. They either needed to spend more time with him, or cut him completely. This is a good example of a poor decision that hurt the overall quality of the movie. There were a number of them.

It's a little hard to judge Hope Floats 18 years after it came out. I'm pretty good at putting myself in the mindset of the time period, though. I wasn't interested in the characters or the story. This movie didn't give me nearly enough to make me care. As a result, I did not enjoy this movie at all. It wasn't terrible, but it was a far cry from being good.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



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