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THE AISLE SEAT - "HOPE FLOATS"

by Mike McGranaghan


Hope Floats begins on a talk show that bears an uncanny resemblance to "The Ricki Lake Show." A young woman is onstage, announcing to the world that she's having an affair with her best friend's husband. They bring out the friend, Birdee (Sandra Bullock), who thinks she is there for a free makeover. Is she ever. The news of the infidelity and betrayal stuns her. Then they bring out her husband Bill (Michael Pare). He announces that the marriage is over. He'd rather be with the other woman.

A devastated Birdee packs up her young daughter Bernice (Mae Whitman) and returns to Smallville, Texas - the place where she grew up and was a former Queen of Corn. They move in with Birdee's mother (the wonderful Gena Rowlands), who plays matchmaker by hooking Birdee back up with an old suitor named Justin (Harry Connick, Jr.). Their relationship is complicated by the fact that she can't seem to get her life back together emotionally. It's clear that Justin is still head-over-heels for Birdee, but her life is too screwed up to begin dating again.

As you can perhaps tell, Hope Floats is not the least bit original. This is the latest in a long line of movies to suggest that the oddities of a small, dead-end town are a remedy for the soul. In these pictures, the well-meaning protagonist is dropped into the middle of Weirdville, U.S.A., where he/she encounters all sorts of "lovable" (but often highly obnoxious) kooks before realizing that this is "the life that matters." Now, I'm not totally immune to the sentiment; getting back to one's roots is a theme that greatly interests me. What I do object to is a treatment so by-the-numbers bland as Hope Floats.

For instance, the eccentricities of the characters are not realistic, but obvious inventions of a screenwriter. Birdee's mother stuffs dead animals and puts them in funny outfits to sit around the house. Her nephew dresses in a different costume (dog, frog, cowboy) in every scene. When Bernice gets upset, everyone dresses up in goofy clothing and lip-synchs a golden oldie to cheer her up. Real people do not do these kinds of things; only desperate movie characters do. Such overly precious antics detract from what is supposed to be a very basic human story.

I could tolerate that if Hope Floats had more substance in its other areas, but unfortunately, the rest of the film is very unclear in its plot. The film wants to examine people and their interactions with one another. However, the screenplay is so lazy that it substitutes emotional shortcuts for character development. You can really see this in the romance between Birdee and Justin. The movie implies that they have a less-than-rosy past together, but we are never told enough about their backgrounds to know exactly what happened. Justin is depicted as a stereotypical "old flame" and we are supposed to just take it for granted that he loves her. Why? Because that's what old flames do in the movies - they come back and try to pick up where they left off. I never bought the film's budding romance for one second. There's no meat to it, so it's impossible to care if they fall in love or not.

And while Justin barely registers as a character (a fact made more obvious by Connick's uninspired performance), Birdee is a potentially interesting character who is never fleshed out. Sandra Bullock is a good actress who makes you see some warmth inside Birdee. But how are we supposed to follow someone so pitifully under-developed? Supporting characters keep talking about how unstoppable Birdee was as a teenager. Nothing in the film indicates her lost spunk except for the incessant dialogue about it. I also found her current plight less-than-convincing. Her husband Bill is barely on screen so he's essentially worthless as an antagonist. We need to see more of Birdee's angst, more of the turmoil that Bill has caused. She comes off as little more than a whiner.

Hope Floats was directed by actor-turned-director Forest Whittaker, who also made the terrific film adaptation of Waiting to Exhale. He has the right style for a picture like this: relaxed, gentle, not forced. He gives Smallville a subtle feel that works on the audience. The problem is in the script, which never defines its characters when it can paint in broad strokes instead.

What I did like were two of the supporting performances. Gena Rowlands is always terrific, even when she has to stuff dead cats into little sheriff's outfits. The actress is good at suggesting the inner lives of the women she plays, which is certainly true here. She's great, but the movie belongs to young Mae Whitman, who gives one of the best child performances in recent memory. Bernice is a feisty, uncensored kind of kid. She tells Justin a hilarious (untrue) story about how her mother named a skunk after him. You can feel contempt in the little girl's manner. She has an ever better scene near the end. Child actors often seem to be straining (see the little boy who plays opposite her), but Whitman is wonderfully alive in this role.

Romantic movies are easy to gage. Good ones fill you with emotion when the characters you have come to know fall in love. Bad ones make you feel like you're spying on strangers as they kiss. Hope Floats is an example of the latter. It wants to be about a woman whose rediscovery of her roots leads to happiness and romance. It is actually about an unknowable woman who finds out that she's the most normal person in town, and then starts dating some guy. Not a lot of meaning in that.

( out of four)


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