Hope Springs (2003) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

  • Colin Firth plays a painter who has left his native England to escape a broken engagement. Fleeing from the world and his broken heart, he relocates in a tiny American town simply because it is called "Hope".

  • Heather Graham plays the simple, but sincere American girl who gets involved with Firth.

  • Minnie Driver plays the fashionable, snooty English ex-fiancee who shows up unexpectedly in Hope, determined to bring her man back to London.

NUDITY REPORT

Heather Graham runs around naked for several minutes. Unfortunately, the scene is edited so that nothing is visible except the top half of one areola and breasts from the side-rear.

The movie was such a bomb in Europe that al Qaeda was jealous. Based on the reaction of the London press and public (think lynch mob), and the fact that none of the three stars has any significant box office appeal in North America, the film was never released theatrically in America.

DVD info from Amazon

  • widescreen anamorphic

There's nothing very wrong with it. It isn't a good movie, but it is not as bad as the English reviews indicate.  If you get tricked into watching it on a date or something, the time should pass without too much pain. It's just trite. It has a cute, if predictable storyline, but there is little actual humor. People who like romantic comedies will come away saying, "it isn't that bad". Others should stay away unless forced to watch it.

The Critics Vote ...

  • British consensus: one star.  Mail 0/10, Telegraph 4/10, Independent 2/10, Guardian 2/10, Times 2/10, Sun 5/10, Express 4/10, Mirror 3/10, BBC 3/5

The People Vote ...

  • IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 4.9/10, Guardian voters called it 5.4/10
  • It grossed a million pounds in England.
The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, this is a C-.

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