Hope Springs Review

If you go to see Hope Springs expecting a fun middle aged romantic comedy from the director of The Devil Wears Prada, you're going to have some questions.  Where is the confident, sexy Meryl Streep that fell into an affair with Alec Baldwin in It's Complicated?  Why have the Hermes scarves and Calvin Klein skirts of her Miranda Priestly days been replaced by a dowdy Coldwater Creek wardrobe?  Why am I not laughing . . . at all?

If you go see Hope Springs hoping for a touching, honest, and intimate portrayal of marriage after 30+ years, featuring three (Meryl, Tommy Lee, and Steve Carrell) of the best performances I've seen all year, you'll get exactly that.

That's the funny thing about hope vs. expectation.  They might seem similar but in movies, marriage, and life, hope prevails.

Hope Springs, rated "PG-13," drama (I'm sorry I know its supposed to be a comedy, but I'm not laughing), starring Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carrell "B"

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World Review

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is about well, the end of the world, so it can't help but be a little bit depressing.  But I had hoped it wouldn't be quite so miserable.  Actually even if the plot had followed an overall emo format with wistful images of people spending their last days together I might not have enjoyed the movie, but I could have appreciated it.


Instead Seeking a Friend careens wildly from quirky comedy to riots and terror to melancholy final days and at last settles on a disgustingly sweet love story that has no business at the end of the world.  Steve Carrell and Kiera Knightly try their best but they can't make this story compelling or even interesting.  I'm not sure how I'd choose to spend Earth's last days, but I can guarantee it wouldn't be watching this movie.


Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, rated "R," comedy, starring Steve Carrell and Kiera Knightly "D"

Move Trailer Anticipation Disorder

I have a problem. I watch a movie trailer and immediately convince myself that I have found my new favorite movie. I have been known to tear up and get goosebumps during those contrived 2 minutes. I immediately obsess over when I'll get to see this movie. I check youtube for new trailers. I watch the previews over and over again. When I tell a friend I'm excited about the movie and she hasn't heard of it (because she's a normal person) I gasp and recite any clips of scenes word for word. Chances are I have already downloaded any good songs featured in the trailer. It's really shameful. It is Movie Trailer Anticipation Disorder (MTAD) and I've struggled with it for years.

Then, when at long last, I get to see the movie.... its not the masterpiece I had in my head. Yes this is whole point of a trailer... like Amanda Woods in "The Holiday," people are payed the big bucks to take an average movie and make everyone (or just me!) excited to see it. And I fall for it every time.

I was obsessed with the Sex and the City movie trailer from the time it leaked on Jezebel in winter 2008 until I finally saw the movie in April of 2008. Fortunately for my sanity, the movie was "just fabulous" (as Carrie would say) and did not disappoint.

This only makes MTAD worse when a movie like "The Time Traveler's Wife," based on one of my all time favorite books and starring one of my all time favorite actresses and prefaced by one of the most magical trailers.... comes up short.

However... I will not give up! I have been dying to see "Crazy, Stupid, Love" since the second I saw this amazing trailer. I told my boyfriend I would wait until he got back in town and we are finally seeing it tonight! And so another cycle of MTAD begins...