Hope Floats
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: May 29, 1998 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
11
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
The ordinariness of the material gives way to the winning personalities of the stars. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
A sharper edge could have taken a pretty good, if uneven, picture to greater heights, considering its potent ingredients and actors. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Bullock, Rowlands, Whitman, and others in the cast -- most notably Harry Connick Jr. -- acquit themselves as admirably as the pedestrian script allows. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
This is a frustrating film that takes its cutesy title way too literally. Read full review
60
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
Hope Floats, which often resembles a rosy commercial, does indulge in too much awkward slow motion, and in occasional embarrassing romps that are meant to signify family fun. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Cloying, unoriginal stuff, rescued -- barely -- by the easy affection that courses between Bullock and Connick Jr., and by the lovely cinematography of Caleb Deschanel. Read full review
50
The New YorkerSarah Kerr
Forest Whitaker directed with a slow, sugary touch -- and, one suspects, an eye toward the home-video market. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A turgid melodrama with the emotional range of a sympathy card. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
An insipid, stillborn drama that drags its viewers through a ghetto of despair before finally, unexpectedly plopping them down in the midst of a happy ending. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The story is slow and corny, but Whitaker gives commendable dignity to his everyday characters, and the acting is emotionally strong as long as the male romantic interest (Connick) isn't around. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The pond is so shallow in this wan romance that there's no room for anything to float. Read full review
40
Washington PostRita Kempley
Despite its hopeful title and a warm inland location, this dawdling family dramedy proves as sodden as a bed-wetter's mattress. Read full review
40
EmpireAngie Errigo
Hope may float, but this bore flounders beyond salvaging. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Hope doesn't float in this film so much as it rises to the surface and then stagnates. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Director Forest Whitaker, who appears to have been typed as a female-friendly director in the wake of "Waitinh to Exhale's" runaway success, drags out the already painfully slow proceedings with syrupy dissolves, slo-mo sequences and redundant flashbacks, underscoring it all with an intrusively obvious country soundtrack that matches lyrics to emotions with cringe-inducing exactness. Read full review
30
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A dreadfully dull, completely conventional story of a young wife's recuperation from being unceremoniously dumped, this is a by-the-numbers bit of emotional calculation without a single fresh, original or offbeat move in its system, apart from a nifty opening sequence. Read full review
30
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
If there's one thing more heartbreaking than a crying child, it's a crying child wearing thick glasses, an image exploited numerous times throughout the course of the dull, uninvolving, tissue-thin Hope Floats. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Floats is corny and false, with a script by Steven Rogers that's almost 100 percent artificial sweetener. Read full review
20
Dallas ObserverAndy Klein
Hope Floats comes lumbering along, scourging all in its path with saccharine sentimentality and bogus emotions. Read full review
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