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Canberra Today 15°/17° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review: ‘Hope Springs’ (M) ***

DAVID Frankel directed Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada”, so we may assume that the pair enjoy a comfortable professional relationship. Which needs remembering as Streep plays Kay who spits the dummy about a 31-year marriage from which the sparkle and romance have faded and issues an ultimatum to Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) to undergo counselling with Dr Feld (Steve Carell). 

My initial feeling was that Kay was burdening Streep with a character outside her comfort zone. Reflection corrected that delusion. Despite it seeming otherwise, she does the film’s core character very well, a middle-class southern housewife who loves Arnold and needs him to escape the rut of familiarity and resume active rutting with her. Her libido is feeling neglected and toey, but not so much so that infidelity is a possibility.

Billed as a comedy, “Hope Springs” does generate some laughter. I doubt that any man could have written dialogue and argument displaying a marriage under stress, as convincingly as Vanessa Taylor. Both sides of the Q&A in Dr Feld’s office are sharp and credible.

I guess Frankel knew how far he might ask Streep to go. As acting royalty, she commands respect. But fully-clothed, middle-aged lovemaking after a five-year drought does suspend our disbelief a tad far.

At all cinemas

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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