Rating: 
Summary: HOPE DOESN'T QUITE SPRING.....
Review: I am an unapologetic Colin fan (much to my husband's chagrin) but even I feel the need to apologize for this one. If you cannot wait for Love Actually or Girl w/a Pearl Earring(the DVD is gonna be cooler than the movie with the 'lost' scenes from the book that a lot of us "firth-ites" were looking for! but I digress!) you would be much better served by purchasing some of the lesser-known films of Firth! Go get Fever Pitch (order from amazon.canada to get the more tastefull cover) or A Month in the Country w/Ken Brannaugh (bonus!) or if you are intrepid, obtain an Hour of the Pig/Advocate (both titles are the same movie. Even the absurd fantastical Mike Binder film Londinium/Fourplay is better. The problem is the book is quirky and a great deal of changes were made from book to screenplay. Things get muddled and the principle explanation for why he chose America is lost. Plus, to make the town in to Hope they lost the New Cardiff-old Cardiff Vera connection that explains out a lot more of the ridiculous points. Let's all hope that Richard Curtis does a better translation of BJ2 Edge of Reason...since missing from BJD was the whole rescue/Pride & Prejudice parallel with Darcy saving the family from disgrace. It would have been awesome! (Colin quite literally going around the world for you ending up with a chase where he's all unkempt and dishevelled....mmm) Anyways... I own this disc and have watched more than once. It really is very fluffy and silly. But since my collection also incudes Master of the Moor and Apartment Zero, I'm going for the complete over quality thing. Bottom line is Colin is always awesome even when paired with Heather Graham. To sum up: spend no money here...
Instead: BJD, Fever Pitch(highly recommend!), P&P (of course!), English Patient(why would she...???), Tumbledown, Nostromo, Valmont, Donovan Quick, Hour of the Pig/Advocate, or save up for Love Actually & Girl w/pearl earring! Also remember Trauma and BJ2 coming to theaters soon!
Rating: 
Summary: Predictable but quite pleasing
Review: I found myself in the video store going to rent "Hero" with Jet Li, and I came across "Hope Springs" as well. I read the box and decided sure, why not, Colin Firth is quickly becoming on the Hugh Grant level for me at least. Having just watched it I should say, I absolutely loved it. Sure it was predictable, what romantic comedy these days isn't, I mean honestly?! Regardless, I loved the quirkiness of the characters and the way they progressed through the film. Colin Firth being his usual self, a heartbroken man attempting to pick up the pieces, Heather Graham as the small town girl who never quite finds love, and Minnie Driver as the selfish EX that has everything but wants the one thing she can no longer have. Sure the end result you can figure by reading the back of the box, but it's the elements that get you there that make this movie so great. I turned this off with a BIG smile on my face and feeling generally good about life. Some of my favorite points of this movie have to be the "I'm Not In Love" rendition done by whomever as well as Colin carrying the beautiful doe eyed Heather Graham ALL the way back to his Motel room (which had to have been miles). Greatest touch with him hurting his back right before credits and the Motel owners thinking otherwise. Loved it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth renting
Review: I honestly believe this is one of the worst movie that I have ever seen. It is not worth seeing or renting. Colin Firth was great!!!! But I didn't find this movie humerously romantic like his other previous films "What a girl wants".
Rating:
Summary: Utterly boring, pointless movie
Review: I recently rented this DVD, assuming that with Colin Firth and Minnie Driver, it must be good. I wondered why I had never heard of it, and now, after watching it, I know why: it's terrible. It's incredibly boring and full of cliches. The characters are unremarkable, and I didn't care enough about any of them to be at all entertained by this worthless waste of my time. Don't bother.
Rating:
Summary: Hope Springs
Review: I saw this movie when I was on a 11 hour plane trip and this was one of the only two things worth watching. I liked it a lot, it had many cute lines and I was able to watch it twice in a row. I don't know if it would be so good in a diferant setting, and clearly many people didn't like it, but I think that it's worth seeing. If it helps anyone I am female and 18 y/o.
Rating:
Summary: What the ****
Review: I stumbled across this movie on my INDEMAND program from my satelite company. I was so excited to learn there was a Colin Firth romantic comedy that I had not seen. I have loved Colin since I first saw him in Pride and Prejudice in high school. (now my fav movie).
This movie was such a disspointment. Heahter Grahm is just insipid in this role, and absoulutly does not fit with Colin's character. There were a few funny scenes, but in general the plot made no sense. Their was no explination for most of the events, and no reason for half of them. Skip this one and watch one of his better movies (I suggest a period peice
Rating:
Summary: Adult Disney fare
Review: I wasn't expecting much - I rented it simply because of Colin Firth. It's nice, it's what Disney/Touchstone are coming up with for their adult audience. But the idea that a broken-hearted man falls in love again, so quickly and almost without questioning his lost love bothers me -- can we go in and out of love that easily? Minnie Driver is very good in a catty diva type of character. Rent it but don't buy it.
Rating:
Summary: What an utterly boring movie from start to finish
Review: I watched this movie because it has Colin Firth, whom I fondly remember as being the first Mr. Darcy in a production of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" who ever managed to make the transition from snob to heartthrob over the course of the story. Firth made a trio of pretty good movies in 2003, from the cute "What a Girl Wants," to the sublime "Girl with a Pearl Earring," and the romantic "Love Actually." That same year he made "Hope Springs," and if you are wondering why you did not hear much about this film it is because most people who see it are not going to want to admit the fact. The story, such as it is, finds Colin Ware (Fifth), an English artist who was jilted by his girlfriend deciding for reasons that passeth understanding to flee to the small town of Hope, Vermont. There he will draw charcoal portraits of the men and women there while he forgets her. Helping Colin with this quest is Mandy (Heather Graham), who is a bit strange and is drawn to jump around naked in front of him. Just as Colin becomes comfortable with Mandy, his ex-girlfriend Vera (Minnie Driver) arrives in town. Apparently Colin was not really jilted, so now we have a love triangle where the only problem is that we have no real reason to have a voting interest in any of the characters. What makes this so remarkable is that "Hope Springs" is based on the novel "New Cardiff" by Charles Webb, who wrote the novel "The Graduate." It has been over three decades since the celebrated film version of "The Graduate" was produced and the only other novel of Webb's to make it to the screen was the 1971 bomb "The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker." But then Hollywood is full of stories of people for whom lightning did not strike twice and with this film Webb threatens to be the poster boy for such unfortunate souls. The film is set in a Vermont town that has the most boring collection of New England eccentrics we have probably ever seen on screen. Both Mary Steenburgen and Oliver Platt are wasted in supporting roles, but then the same can be said for Firth, Graham and Driver. The only reason to like Colin the character is because we like Colin the actor, since there is nothing to warrant our attraction to the character in this film beyond his sense of befuddlement. When the best jokes in a film have to do with Catharine Zeta-Jones and smoking on a golf course, you know things are in bad shape. When you get to the point where you are supposed to get teary eyed and you yawn instead, you know this film can sink no lower. It is not so much that this is a bad film as it is that it is just not good. Will Colin choose Mandy or Vera? I do not care and cannot think of much reason for anybody else to care as well. Maybe this film would have done better if it had a cast of nobodies instead of recognizable names who squander the good will they have built up in other films. For example, I have seen Graham do a nude scene in another film, so when she does one in which we never really see anything it just seems strange, which does set the town for the rest of this disjointed film. When Driver shows up it is impossible to believe that she and Firth ever had any chemistry. It is a good thing that Firth had those other films in the can by the time this one was released. If you have three pretty good films in one year that is pretty good, even if there is a bomb like this in the mix. The bottom line is that I saw this movie so that you do not have to. If you like Colin Firth then I would tell you to go check out "Girl with a Pearl Earring," because that is probably the one you missed given its box office receipts and it is a gem of a film. This one is just a disappointing, boring mess.
Rating:
Summary: What an utterly boring movie from start to finish
Review: I watched this movie because it has Colin Firth, whom I fondly remember as being the first Mr. Darcy in a production of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" who ever managed to make the transition from snob to heartthrob over the course of the story. Firth made a trio of pretty good movies in 2003, from the cute "What a Girl Wants," to the sublime "Girl with a Pearl Earring," and the romantic "Love Actually." That same year he made "Hope Springs," and if you are wondering why you did not hear much about this film it is because most people who see it are not going to want to admit the fact. The story, such as it is, finds Colin Ware (Fifth), an English artist who was jilted by his girlfriend deciding for reasons that passeth understanding to flee to the small town of Hope, Vermont. There he will draw charcoal portraits of the men and women there while he forgets her. Helping Colin with this quest is Mandy (Heather Graham), who is a bit strange and is drawn to jump around naked in front of him. Just as Colin becomes comfortable with Mandy, his ex-girlfriend Vera (Minnie Driver) arrives in town. Apparently Colin was not really jilted, so now we have a love triangle where the only problem is that we have no real reason to have a voting interest in any of the characters. What makes this so remarkable is that "Hope Springs" is based on the novel "New Cardiff" by Charles Webb, who wrote the novel "The Graduate." It has been over three decades since the celebrated film version of "The Graduate" was produced and the only other novel of Webb's to make it to the screen was the 1971 bomb "The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker." But then Hollywood is full of stories of people for whom lightning did not strike twice and with this film Webb threatens to be the poster boy for such unfortunate souls. The film is set in a Vermont town that has the most boring collection of New England eccentrics we have probably ever seen on screen. Both Mary Steenburgen and Oliver Platt are wasted in supporting roles, but then the same can be said for Firth, Graham and Driver. The only reason to like Colin the character is because we like Colin the actor, since there is nothing to warrant our attraction to the character in this film beyond his sense of befuddlement. When the best jokes in a film have to do with Catharine Zeta-Jones and smoking on a golf course, you know things are in bad shape. When you get to the point where you are supposed to get teary eyed and you yawn instead, you know this film can sink no lower. It is not so much that this is a bad film as it is that it is just not good. Will Colin choose Mandy or Vera? I do not care and cannot think of much reason for anybody else to care as well. Maybe this film would have done better if it had a cast of nobodies instead of recognizable names who squander the good will they have built up in other films. For example, I have seen Graham do a nude scene in another film, so when she does one in which we never really see anything it just seems strange, which does set the town for the rest of this disjointed film. When Driver shows up it is impossible to believe that she and Firth ever had any chemistry. It is a good thing that Firth had those other films in the can by the time this one was released. If you have three pretty good films in one year that is pretty good, even if there is a bomb like this in the mix. The bottom line is that I saw this movie so that you do not have to. If you like Colin Firth then I would tell you to go check out "Girl with a Pearl Earring," because that is probably the one you missed given its box office receipts and it is a gem of a film. This one is just a disappointing, boring mess.
Rating:
Summary: Romance Springs
Review: In Brief When British artist Colin Ware (Firth), discovers that his fiancée Vera (Driver), the love of his life, is going to marry another man he gets on a plane for America and ends up in a tiny town called Hope. Distraught, he soon finds more than a shoulder to cry on when his innkeepers introduce him to Mandy (Graham) a beautiful nurse. But no sooner has Colin forgotten about his old flame than Vera shows up. Review Romantic Comedies usually have that mix of candy floss content that makes you think you can eat a whole one, as how hard can it be to eat sugar whipped in air? Yet when you attempt it you realise that while there really isn't anything to it, you cant finish as its sickly sweet and forcing yourself to throw it away you are left feeling very unsatisfied. Now while that analogy may make you cringe you'll be thankful to know that Hope Springs certainly won't. Indeed this is one of those rare hybrid films that feature an Anglo-American crossover romance and succeeds in mixing sass and irony very well so that both sides of the Atlantic may appreciate its story. Following in the footsteps of Notting Hill and Four Weddings this slice of American apple pie sets the story in the ideally named small town of Hope, where a typically English gent (Firth) has escaped his long-term fiancée to find himself anew. Mandy (Graham) is the tonic everyman desires, and while its beginning to become a familiar story of estranged love finds new passion, both play their roles with a freshness that really lights up the screen. Steenburgen and Collison are perfect as the comedy cupids that help steer true love on its path. While the local residents of the small town all have a part to play in both hindering and helping the pairing of Mandy & Colin. Indeed, the local mayor played by Oliver Platt is a brilliant encapsulation of the small time business man turned big time thinker, and he brings a slightly toned down but nicely timed comic turn throughout. Like all romantic comedies the only major downside are their predictability. They all share the same fate, yet its an example of good filmmaking if the story can be remoulded as if to give the impression that its slightly original or at least engaging. Unfortunately Hope Springs is not original, but it does its job well and passes 90 minutes without temptation to make itself something far greater than it should be. The Verdict This is the ABC of romance, told with such a sincerity by all members of the cast that you cant help but enjoy it. Colin Firth may have moved on from the wet shirt days of Pride & Prejudice and though he may no longer be Mr. Darcy I don't believe he will disappoint. A delightful pairing with Graham works well, and Hope Springs is enough to give anyone that 90 minute dream we all need sometimes.
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