This is going to make me sound far, far more conservative than I am, but Hollywood seems to have some strange ideas about marriage, which may not mirror the rest of the country. It seems that every week we read about yet another celebrity getting divorced, often after being married for a brief time. Is the divorce rate higher in Hollywood than for the rest of us? I don't have the stats on that, but it certainly appears that way. Even stranger is the way in which marriages are portrayed in movies and on TV. Most couples seem extremely unhappy and marriage is made out to be the worst mistake which anyone can make. Or, if the couple is happy, they are goofy and everyone around them makes fun of them. Hope Springs attempts to take a realistic look at marriage. Can it finally be the movie which gets it right?

Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) are stuck in a rut. Having been married for three decades, their daily routine is always the same. Kay makes breakfast for Arnold and they both go to work. She serves him dinner and he falls asleep in front of the TV while watching The Golf Channel. They then go to bed in separate bedrooms. Kay is sick of this life, but doesn't know what to do about it. While in the bookstore, she finds a book by Dr. Feld (Steve Carell), which addresses marital issues. She also learns that Dr. Feld offers intensives couples counseling at his office in Maine. Kay makes an appointment for this, buys the plane tickets and asks Arnold to go, and he very reluctantly agrees. Once in Dr. Feld's office, some very uncomfortable and direct questions about the relationship are brought up and Kay and Arnold are forced to take a serious look at themselves and decide if they still want to stay together.

While some things are heightened for the sake of drama, after all, this is a movie, Hope Springs does present an unfortunately accurate portrayal of what some marriages become. It's sad to think that a couple can live together for so long and yet be strangers to one another, but loveless marriages certainly do exist and the film does a good job of showing how routine can wear a couple down. The movie also reflects reality in the presentation of the characters themselves. There's nothing Hollywood about Streep or Jones here, as she wears very dowdy clothes and he looks even more craggy and exhausted than usual.

There's no argument that Hope Springs is well-written and well-acted, but is it entertaining? That's where the big question comes in. This is truly a drama and most of the scenes are dialogue-driven, and as noted, many of them will test the audience. There are some funny moments, including one laugh-out-loud line, and Jones gets a lot of mileage from his standard curmudgeon role. However, it can be hard to root for Kay and Arnold at times. Do we, the audience, want them to stay together for any reason other than society states that we should strive for marriages to succeed? Would they be happier if they simple ended it? That's difficult to say. While the film is moving, it also doesn't invite us in as much as it could have. Some may find Dr. Feld's approach to counseling standoffish and unrealistic, but his methods are sound and they illustrate how a good counselor merely shepherds the patient, as opposed to directing them. One thing is for sure, Hope Springs will most likely not appeal to younger viewers and may alienate those who haven't been in a long-term relationship. For the rest of us, Hope Springs will either make you appreciate the good bond which you have or either force you to realize that you are more like Kay and Arnold than you'd like to admit.

Hope Springs has an odd amount of product placement (Coldwater Creek, Barnes & Noble, EconoLodge) on DVD courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is sharp and clear, showing no notable grain and no defects from the source materials. The colors look good and the image is never overly dark or bright. Perhaps I've been spoiled by Blu-ray Discs, but I did find the picture to be notably soft at times, and some shots lacked in detail. The landscape shots of the coastline look good. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. Again, this is a dialogue-driven drama, so we don't get a lot in the way of dynamic audio effects here. The actors are always intelligible and the music and sound effects don't intrude on the dialogue. We get some minor stereo and surround effects from the street scenes, and the musical score sounds fine.

The Hope Springs DVD contains a few extras. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Director David Frankel. "Inside the Perfect Movie Marriage: Meryl Streep & Tommy Lee Jones" (4 minutes) is an interview with the two actors who discuss their characters and their reactions to the material. They also give their opinions on relationships. "Exploring the Scene - Alternate Takes Gallery" (17 minutes) shows us various versions of four scenes from the movie in which the actors try different lines. This can be viewed with an introduction from Frankel. The final extra is a 5-minute GAG REEL.