Hope Floats

Hope Floats is wholesome by modern standards, and many will enjoy that, but it's so soft that I'm tempted to suggest that it might have worked much better as a farce. The opportunities were certainly there in the script.

After all, the last two reunion films we've seen that jump to mind were Grosse Pointe Blank and Romy And Michelle's High School Reunion, both farces, and both much more entertaining than Hope Floats, depending on your taste.

In Hope Floats Birdie Calvert (Sandra Bullock) is dumped on day time TV by her husband and best friend (Michael Pare and Rosanna Arquette), who have been having an affair for a year.

Birdie takes off to stay with her taxidermist mother Romona (Gena Rowlands) in Texas, hauling her daughter Bernice (Mae Whitman, of One Fine Day fame) away from the standard two floors plus attic, basic accommodation, Hollywood housing unit the girl had formerly shared with her adulterous father and former Prom Queen mother.

Birdie, back in her home town, then finds herself in an extended, enforced reunion with her former school friends, some bitchy and some handsome. She especially encounters Justin Matisse (Harry Connick Jr), a nice guy who is good looking and a great handyman. He's been smitten since college with the formerly aloof Birdie. You can guess what happens.

Films like Hope Floats can work well enough. Look at the success of Fried Green Tomatoes or Steel Magnolias, which should give you a clue about another important plot device the producers of Hope Floats have used.

But we needed more ballast to get Hope Floating. Probably another romance sub plot would have spiced things up. Or perhaps more inspired direction from Forest Whitaker (Waiting To Exhale) and more gusto from the actors, could have somehow sparked this leisurely film. No one seems particularly interested, least of all Sandra Bullock who also co-produced the movie.

There are however some gutsy bits in Hope Floats, nearly all of which are supplied by the children. (There's an unexplained extra grandchild already living with Romona! What happened to his story?) There are plenty of nice moments, but not enough pizzazz for most cinema patrons.