Hope Springs interminable as this "looks good on paper" project went straight to video. The problem mostly lies in the bloodless performance by Colin Firth. Just as badly as Hugh Grant has become a charicature of himself, so lately has Colin Firth. Colin Firth. Whenever you want to make a romantic film, be it comedy or drama that requires a handsome, dark and stoic man, who communicates the feelings of his heart through his expressive eyes - Firth is becoming the go-to guy. His character's in both Bridget Jones, Love Actually, are all pretty much the D'Arcy we've come to expect. The guy every gushing mush-minded women in the crowd go 'aww' simply by turning up, Firth is your man. The reason I complain about this is because I love the guy myself.

Still it would seem that even firth would be getting tired of his cliche characterization. It would do much to explain the utter lack of enthusiasm, interest and life present in Colin Firth's most recent performance? You can almost see him consciously trying new ways to be himself in Hope Springs, but unable to stray far from his orbit. This time they trot him out as an artist who's moved far away from where he'd previously lived and gotten his heart broken. He flees halfway around the world to a small American town called Hope.

Soon, in fact immediately he meets the free-spirited Mandy - the perfect balm for his wounded somber psyche. Mandy is played by Heather Graham (who isn't exactly on a role so few years after being the "it" girl. plays the loopy blonde who tries to seduce him within eight minutes, drinks half a bottle of beer out of a sack within twelve minutes, and then strips naked within fifteen minutes. A romantic lead that we can really relate to.

Out of respect to the memory of his lost love he decides to have sex with Graham a few minutes after this. Ladies and gentleman, this is not how things really go in the real world. At all. Having gotten off to such a stupid start there is little hope springing that this film is going to sputter back to life.

Not hardly, now trust me when I explain this next bit - this is really what happens.
Next thing you know his ex-fiancee (Minnie Driver) who jilted him half way around the world turns up with the news that she was just pulling a practical joke when she sent him a wedding invitation with another guy's name on it. She just wanted to make remind him that he hadn't yet set a date. It turns out he'd been Punkd.

Naturally a cavalcade of madcap comedy ensues which sadly lacks anywhere enough humor to pull this clap-trap piece of crap along. As I watched this film I found myself : "Weren't these people all A-list once?" About a month ago?
I've always liked Minnie Driver, even when she was going through her 'Matt Damon stalker' phase. In my opinion she's funny, talented, and a lot better than 90 percent of the roles she's been taking over the last five years. The David Duchovny romantic comedy was an exception.

Heather Graham strangely seems to choose her projects based upon whether or not she's going to be allowed to get naked. Not that I mind Heather Graham getting naked (and there's plenty of it here), but she's certainly made the mistake of not setting herself up with a career that can continue when her bodily assets begin to flag.