The Movie Guys: 'Hope Floats,' but does the movie?

Hope Floats

* Grades: Jeff, D; Dave, B.

* Starring: Sandra Bullock, Gena Rowland, Harry Connick Jr., Mae Whitman and Michael Pare.

* Director: Forest Whitaker.

* Rated: PG-13 for adult themes and situations.

* Running time: 120 minutes.

* Playing at: Cinedome 12 Las Vegas, Century Desert 16, Cinedome 12 Henderson, ACT III Texas Station, ACT III Sunset Station, ACT III Village Square.

Synopsis: Birdee Pruitt has been married for years to her high school sweetheart, but when her picture-perfect life comes crashing down around her, she must start over. With no place else to turn, the former beauty queen, along with her daughter, heads back home to Smithville, Texas, where Birdee's life becomes even more complicated, dealing with her mother and the prospect of a new romance.

Jeff: I was ready for actor-turned-director Forest Whitaker. His reputation for "women's films" -- as with the hit "Waiting to Exhale" -- seemed to tap into the "here we are, women sitting around, feeling good about ourselves, sharing our feelings, who can stand those rotten men? movies. His new film, "Hope Floats," has all the ingredients needed for a modern woman's tale: A housewife who catches her husband cheating, returns rapidly to her fly-on-a-map hometown, moves back in with her eccentric mother and has an affair with a country bumpkin carpenter, all while trying to raise her 9-year-old daughter. This sounds like an interesting, simple enough story; instead Whitaker purees it into an unmatchable mess of a movie.

Dave: Poor, poor Jeffrey. How you can completely miss the boat on this light-hearted romantic-comedy is a mystery to me. Whitaker (best known in supportive roles in "The Crying Game" and "Phenomenon") continues to prove his talents behind the camera. In addition, he has a wonderful cast led by the magnetic Sandra Bullock -- who is always, as I say, easy on the eyes. She has recently experienced her share of box office droughts, what with last year's "Speed 2," Richard Attenborough's bomb "In Love and War" and the miserable "Two If By Sea." Finally, she has returned to safe territory to successfully star in, and executive produce, the first date flick of the summer.

Jeff: You see folks, Dave is too young to handle his romantic comedies straight, so he can only handle them watered down. Be a man, Dave! Whitaker's talents are apparent in his previous films, but are unused here. His intercutting of scenes, his use of the ever-popular and overused slow motion, mixed in with scores of out-of-focus shots, add to the over-dramatic sap already pouring out of our main character Birdee (Bullock). Whitaker misses every opportunity to fully exploit the dramatic and comedic situations with her.

A small-town girl who was the high school prom queen, the envy of the entire town, returns home a failure and her marriage ruined on national television talk show. ("I taped it," one town member exclaims.) How does Birdee handle the subtle revenge her classmates relish on her recent failure? All she does is flash that insincere smile -- at her job interview, at the bar, at her mother. Everyone in town wants a piece of Birdee because of the way she treated them in the old days, but she just smiles it away. How can we feel for her if she is so darn pleasant all the time?

Dave: Pleasant all the time, Jeff? First off, the character of Birdee is above any "revenge factor" you may be expecting from her. She suffers from a humiliating experience on a Ricki Lake-type talk show and learns to become the audacious person that she always aspired to be. Second, she is a responsible mother trying to cope with a separation while raising her daughter Bernice (an impressive youngster played by Mae Whitman) who wants nothing but her daddy. Bullock brings a unique resilience that only she possesses. With her is the popular musician making his way into movie stardom, Harry Connick, Jr. His sincere nature and honest look make for an ideal match between the two stars. As the old childhood friend to the popular Birdee, their romantic link slowly grows into something inspiring.

Jeff: Harry Connick, Jr. has a sincere nature? His portrayal of Justin Matisse -- of an empty-headed country bumpkin carpenter who has just one thing on his mind -- is not romantic, I can tell you that. Birdee's and Justin's romance is so transparent and shallow that the sparks never fly. The chemistry is absent. While we are on the subject of relationships, the mother-daughter relationship is lukewarm at best. Birdee's eccentric mother, Ramona, (a truly colorful, lovable character, heartwarmingly played by Gena Rowlands) endures hit-and-miss opportunities to help repair any past problems with Birdee. The outcome of their relationship served no other purpose than to make the audience cry.

Dave: Well, I have to say, I agree with you on that note. It seemed a bit drastic and completely out of place. However, debut screenwriter Steven Rogers makes a nice impression with his knack for dialogue by adding words of wisdom, and has a great sense of character development. Also, the film is accompanied by a somber musical score by Dave Grusin, mixed with a terrific soundtrack.

Jeff: Grusin's music is always a winner. However, the most interesting story in the film is Bernice's and her adventures with her cousin, Travis. Her struggle with losing her father, coming to a strange town and dealing with the class bully are the only redeeming and interesting elements in the story. Whitman is a bundle of talent, but "Hope Floats" is a failure in almost every corner you look in. Nothing manages to stay afloat in this dreary, dreadful, unromantic dud.

Dave: And this coming from a guy who hated the Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes version of "William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet." The film's message is that when times are desperate, there is always hope to grasp. And in a summer of giant lizards, hurtling asteroids and truths revealed, "Hope Floats" is the perfect change of pace.

VIEWPOINT

Depending on who you talk to, "Godzilla" either performed exceedingly well over the long Memorial Day weekend or it floundered like so much lizard bait. It certainly didn't earn the $100 million that some had predicted. It paled behind the grosses of Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park: The Lost World" or "Independence Day," the previous work of "Godzilla" masterminds Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. It even lagged behind "Mission Impossible," which earned $57 million at this time two years ago. However, Big Green did take in $55.5 million over the weekend -- the biggest opening of the year and seventh biggest of all time. Still, a film that was booked into a record number of theaters and hyped to the extreme -- "Here, leezard, leezard, leezard..." -- should have done a LOT better.

Why did it fail to meet expectations? Simple: Poorly cast actors, an overly-simplistic plot and hole-riddled screenplay with poorly written characters and a startlingly unoriginal storyline. You can get the 13-year-olds into the theater once, but if you can't get them in three, four and five times, you're lizard food! Most industry analysts agree that Sony's hopes to turn "Godzilla" into a "franchise" must now be abandoned. The studio, of course, saw things differently. Sony Distribution Chief Jeff Blake told The New York Times earlier this week that "it is one of the top 10 openings of all time. It's hard to call that a disappointment." Like they say, if you throw enough you-know-what at a wall, some of it is bound to stick.

MOVIE BUZZ

* Cast goes "Psycho": The casting of the Gus Van Sant-directed remake of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" has been completed. Viggo Mortensen ("The Prophecy," "A Perfect Murder") and William H. Macy ("Boogie Nights," "Fargo," TV's "ER") have signed on as Marion's boyfriend, Sam Loomis, and the police chief, respectively. They join the major characters played by Vince Vaughn ("The Lost World"), Anne Heche ("Wag the Dog") and Julianne Moore ("Boogie Nights").

* Sinise is "Impostor": Jennifer Lopez and Gary Sinise are in final talks to star in Dimension Films' "Impostor." Based on a Philip K. Dick story of the same name, the film focuses on an engineer (Sinise) who creates the ultimate weapon in a battle against aliens, only to be suspected of being an alien himself. The project is the second in a three-part anthology that Dimension is putting together on the relationship between humans and aliens called "Alien Love Triangle." Other films based on Dick's stories include "Blade Runner" and "Total Recall."

* San Fran shake-up: Heads-up, moviegoers! In the wake of "Titanic's" success, another period-disaster-romance-epic may work its way onto the silver screen. According to the New York Post, director Barry Levinson ("Sphere," "Wag the Dog") and Warner Bros. have bought film rights to "1906," a romantic mystery set in San Francisco during this nation's most destructive earthquake. We wonder if Celine Dion is available to do the theme song? Or mabye Tony Bennett?

NAME THAT FLICK

"Yes, he actually was President of the United States, but I know that whenever he used to leave the White House, the Secret Service used to count the silverware." Some callers thought this line was from "My Fellow Americans," but it was Chris Derringer who correctly answered: Woody Allen in "Sleeper." Way to go Chris!

For this week, who said this and in what film: "I'm simply saying that life, uh, finds a way." Does it sound familiar? If you think you know, call The Movie Guys Hotline at 225-9026 or e-mail us at [email protected] (voted best film critics by the 1998 Frostbite Falls Enquirer Readers Poll). Be sure to spell your name and leave your daytime phone number, and if you're the first correct caller/e-mailer, we will print your name right here in our column (now with no afterburn side effects) for the entire Vegas Valley to read.

See you next week.

THE MOVIE GUYS, starring Jeff Howard and Dave Neil, appears every Friday in the Sun (additional material provided by Thomas Feeney). You can also read their capsule reviews of movies in Scope magazine and watch their reviews every Friday on Channel 3's 11 p.m. newscast. Plus, check them out online at: www.lasvegassun.com/sun/sunlife/movies.

archive