Hope Springs
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: August 8, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
12
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
ObserverRex ReedAug 8, 2012
I think everything about the movie is too subtle and real to appeal to the "Batman" demographic, but for mature audiences who have forgotten how to smile, it takes up where "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' left off. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasAug 8, 2012
Taylor and Frankel go too broad when they try for comic relief - and the on-the-nose soundtrack is borderline criminal - but Hope Springs handles marriage and advanced-age sexuality with a refreshing, down-to-earth candor. In today's Hollywood, that counts as radical. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumAug 1, 2012
Hope Springs dares viewers to look closely at the remarkable sight of naked adult intimacy and its discontents. Read full review
80
EmpireAngie ErrigoSep 10, 2012
Very funny, it's also penetrating on the ravages of time on love and marriage and sweetly touching, but with abundantly incongruous randy content to heartily amuse. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 10, 2012
Hope Springs is an oddly ambitious blend of bland humor and startling insight into the realities of married life. It's something like Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes From a Marriage," as translated into the universe of the Lifetime Network. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 8, 2012
If you're not in that demographic, don't dismiss it. You'll miss out on a genuinely sweet, perfectly acted, remarkably brave little movie that should make audiences swoon for something they thought was gone - a smart dramedy for grown-ups. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyAug 7, 2012
An unusually intelligent cut at the relationship game. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondAug 6, 2012
Deftly veering from comedy to drama, director David Frankel (who also guided Streep to one of her 17 Oscar nominations in "The Devil Wears Prada") never loses sight of the humanity and universality of the situation. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangAug 1, 2012
Hope Springs is an altogether pleasant surprise: a mainstream dramedy that frankly and intelligently addresses the challenges facing a couple after 31 years of marriage. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 9, 2012
Hope Springs knows happy endings are provisional. What this exuberant gift of a movie offers Kay and Arnold is a renewed appetite for life. And that never gets old. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 8, 2012
Tonally, Hope Springs is closer to Alexander Payne than Meyers although Frankel does his best to keep things from turning too dark. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenAug 8, 2012
Yes, this is the fascinating stuff, a rare (in pop culture) look at the complex nature of the love-sex equation – when it's too direct, when it's too vague, when it breaks down completely. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 8, 2012
If the film doesn't really explore the pain and bitterness of this marriage, it's still leagues ahead of most such attempts. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickAug 8, 2012
Hope Springs could have been unbearably schmaltzy or crude. Instead, in the hands of these expert actors and filmmakers, it's a warm and wryly affecting mid-summer treat. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 7, 2012
Hope Springs is a minor miracle of a movie. Within a Hollywood tradition accustomed to treating sex as something titillating, taboo, gauzily idealized or downright pornographic, finally someone has made a movie that treats it in the riskiest way possible: as the physical expression of intimacy between two flawed but recognizable adults. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 7, 2012
It's not much of a comedy - even Steve Carell, as the therapist, plays it straight here. But it's very effective as a cautionary tale. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 7, 2012
As Kay and Arnold struggle to reconnect, Hope Springs stays close to the task at hand. The characters aren't fabulously dimensional, but the actors are. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 7, 2012
The reason to see it is for Jones. This man who can stride fearlessly through roles requiring strong, determined men, this actor who can seem in complete control, finds a character here who seems unlike any other he has played and plays it bravely. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 7, 2012
As Kay and Arnold lurch toward intimacy, the roles bring out a playful side seldom seen in Streep and practically never in Jones, his signature surliness melting into disarming smiles and tenderness. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 9, 2012
The movie perseveres with affecting, sometimes startling candor, and eventually delivers on its promise by confronting the dark fears and furtive hopes of a couple no longer young. Read full review
70
TimeMary PolsAug 8, 2012
I don't want to scare anyone away, but Hope Springs, better than I expected, is a movie for grown ups that seems just the tiniest bit French. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 7, 2012
A charming film. Not a great one, but a good one. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweAug 1, 2012
More comedic drama than midlife romantic comedy, rather literally titled Hope Springs holds few surprises but delivers plenty of warmth. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 7, 2012
It takes an almost bracingly explicit attitude toward issues of sexual intimacy, to the degree that just seeing this film might count as therapy for some married couples. The PG-13 rating is justified, and should be taken literally, though I can't imagine too many parents bringing their kids to this one. Talk about an awkward car ride home.  Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 7, 2012
In a media landscape that only has eyes for the sex lives of nubile young things, Hope Springs' sincere, considered, and unembarrassed exploration of mature sexuality marks a welcome exception. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyAug 8, 2012
Rather than plunge into the murky marital waters of ambivalence and power struggle, the film bobs on the surface. No one would ever mistake David Frankel's dramedy of sexual healing for Ingmar Bergman's psychologically astute "Scenes From a Marriage." Read full review
63
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundAug 6, 2012
A decidedly adult drama about love and sex, wherein the comedy is largely incidental. Read full review
60
Total FilmEllen E. JonesSep 1, 2012
Fine turns from Streep and Jones bedrock this compassionate, quietly subversive drama. Read full review
60
MovielineLorien HaynesAug 8, 2012
Had the movie been made with two different lead actors, I surely believe the movie would have been unwatchable. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 8, 2012
Billed as a dramatic comedy, and it lives up to that billing, even if it tends more toward chuckles than guffaws. In other words, one thing it's not is "It's Complicated," Streep's previous -- and often riotous -- relationship dramedy. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 10, 2012
Streep and Jones make themselves small: She's chirpy; he's crusty. Incessant pop standards on the soundtrack supply the emotion the director can't. All that's missing are commercials for estrogen cream and erectile-dysfunction meds. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 9, 2012
The movie is oddly impersonal - you remember the concept more than the story - and feels like something that was made simply for the opportunity to pair Streep and Jones for the first time. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 8, 2012
The movie is an awkward cross between a domestic comedy and a marital tragedy that's laced with laughs, soggy with tears and burdened by a booming, blunt soundtrack that amplifies every narrative beat. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 7, 2012
It's about as uncomfortable as sitting through an interminable counseling session - involving two people you hardly know and don't much care about. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyAug 7, 2012
You feel embarrassed for Streep and Jones (Streep especially) because of the situations, often sexual, they're put in. They're definitely not mailing in their performances. Read full review
50
Village VoiceSimon AbramsAug 7, 2012
Jones and Streep give likable enough performances as a humane monster and a human victim. But their characters never become more than that. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 7, 2012
People over 60 are as sexual and complicated as their grandchildren, and there ought to be more movies about them, but only an audience as constipated as these characters could mistake this lukewarm stream of pablum for a hard nugget of truth. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 16, 2012
As the couple try to rekindle the bedroom flame the note of cutesy comedy kicks in and the movie gets phonier and phonier. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearAug 7, 2012
When the sing-song Jones and beatifically smiling Streep are allowed to carry the dramatic weight, you can see the raw, tough-love film that Hope Springs wants to be - until Frankel starts trying to be lighthearted and cute, at which point you see the movie's real troubled marriage in full bloom. Read full review
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