Living in Hope (Hope Springs (DVD))

Member Name: kellyv43

Product:	Hope Springs (DVD)
Date:	05/06/04 (94 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good film

Disadvantages: predictable

Looking through my sisters extensive DVD collection on a Sunday afternoon I came across ‘Hope Springs’. I had never seen this film before but just from looking at the DVD cover it immediately appealed to me. Why? Because it has a picture of Colin Firth on the front. Ever since Bridget Jones he has become one of my favourite actors.

Hope springs was released in 2003 and the Dvd came out earlier this year. It is rated 12 and it does contain some mild bad language. It runs for approximately 88 minutes.

The film Hope Springs is based on a book called ‘ New Cardiff’ written by Charles Webb. I had never heard of the book before.
The film stars
-Colin Firth as Colin Ware
-Minnie Driver as Vera
-Heather Graham as Mandy

Colin Firth plays the part of an English artist called Colin Ware. Colin has just found out that his fiancee is going to marry another man, he is heart broken and leaves England to start a new life in America. He moves to a small town called ‘Hope’.

When he gets there he is constantly thinking about the love of his life Vera. He checks into a hotel where the receptionist introduces him to a friend of hers, a young nurse called Mandy (Heather Graham). It is not long before she is starting to heal his broken heart. They fall in love and things seem to be going really well, but then Colin gets the surprise of his life when Vera turns up telling him that it was all a big joke and that she is not marrying anyone else. She had sent him a wedding invitation to try and hurry him into marrying her instead. (As if) Vera tells him that she wants him to go back to England with her. Colin tells Vera he is not going, although he doesn’t tell her that it is because he has found someone else.

Here starts the love triangle for the movie. As with all movies of this kind it goes on to show how Vera tries to win him back. She suspects he is seeing Mandy. Vera tells her that C
olin needs to go back to England because his dad has just had a major operation. Mandy starts to believe the things she says and finishes with Colin.

I enjoyed this film very much. It is quite predictable, but all romantic comedies seem to be. If you are a fan of this type of film then it is definitely worth watching

All the actors in the film give excellent performances and the supporting cast are great to they help to bring it all together with their comical little parts.

This is not a film where I found myself laughing uncontrollably at any of the scenes, but I did find some parts quite funny to watch. This film makes fun of an Englishman in America, by having Colin driving very slowly because it is on the other side of the road. Colin Ware goes round the small town of Hope drawing portraits of the local people who live there. They all seem to know his business and gossip seems to spread very quickly around hope. This is quite funny especially when the whole town seems to know he doesn’t wear underpants because he left home so quickly and forgot to pack them.

The soundtrack to this film doesn’t have any classic songs in it but is still good. It includes Ronan Keating‘s hit song ‘Love it when we do’ (it was a hit...honest!!).

As I said earlier in this op I borrowed my sisters DVD, but I wouldn’t bother paying the extra money to buy this on DVD because the only extra features on it is a short 5 minute feature of the making of the film. Here the actors talk a bit about there characters and it has the producers talking. I would recommend buying it on video at a cheaper price.

Summary: