Hope Floats (1998)

The Worst Film Ever

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

This category of movie "Romantic Drama" is at times difficult to get excited about. Certainly you don't expect Die Hard, if you are going to see a Romantic Drama. Additionally this movie includes some Cliché Characters. This movie relates a story of how hope can impact a person's life. It relates a devastating event in the lives of Birdee (Sandra Bulloch) and her daughter.They both show problems accepting the reality of the event, and furthermore they both essentially becomes depressed. Eventually, Birdee begins to accept the event, but her daughter still can not. Eventually after suffering another devastating event, they both accept their reality, and discover that doing so gets them both out of depression and able to move on with their lives.It shows that accepting reality instead of wishing for the way things used to be, can bring hope and hope can bring some good changes.

Birdee Pruitt (Sandra Bullock) is blindsided by her best friend Connie as she tells her that she's been sleeping with her husband Bill Pruitt (Michael Paré) on a national TV talk show. Birdee and her daughter Bernice (Mae Whitman) runs back home to her mother Ramona (Gena Rowlands) in Smithville, Texas. She's a former beauty queen and everybody in town knows about her embarrassing downfall. Old schoolmate Justin Matisse (Harry Connick Jr.) is still in love with her.Forest Whitaker is the director. He is surprisingly in love with these cheesy romantic movies. There is no real life in this movie. Sandra Bullock is a compelling actress and she has a couple of good scenes. Mae Whitman has a heart wrenching scene at the end. There are good actors here although Harry Connick Jr. still needs some seasoning. He looks too young, too unimpressive, and lacks depth. His relationship with Birdee has a lighter than air quality. There just isn't any substance in their chemistry. It doesn't power through the waters as much as it just floats there.

I would probably never have found out about this film if I hadn't gone to Hollywood to see Forest Whitaker accepting the Riviera award from Sandra Bullock on stage at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, he directed her in this film, I had to see if it was any good. Basically beautiful Birdee Pruitt (Bullock) is humiliated on the Ricki Lake style talk show presented by Toni Post (Kathy Najimy) who gets her husband Bill (Michael Paré) to confess he has been having an affair with her best friend Connie Phillips (Rosanna Arquette). After this she decides to return to her hometown in Smithville, Texas to live with her mother Ramona Calvert (Gena Rowlands), but of course the whole town knows about the televised confession by Connie. Birdee reacquaints herself with old friends from high school and living in town who can't help but rub her face in her TV appearance, but she has her little daughter Bernice (Independence Day's Mae Whitman) to cheer her up. Feeling depressed and trying to get on in her new job processing photos and stop the taunts she meets another old friend Justin Matisse (Harry Connick Jr.) who helps her get on in any way he can. He still has feelings for her, and of course as they spend more time together their relationship turns into love, and he comforts her all the way in whatever she has to go through. In the end she suffers the death of her mother Ramona, says a final goodbye to ex-husband Bill, and Birdee considers marrying Justin. Also starring Cameron Finley as Travis and Bill Cobbs as Nurse. Bullock is likable as the normal woman made known for the wrong reasons, Connick Jr. is a little cheesy but alright as her love, and Rowlands does well as the Alzeimer's Disease suffering mother, I didn't think there was much of a plot, the romance thing was adequate, overall it wasn't such a bad romantic comedy drama. Okay!

"Hope Floats" is too dramatic to be a romantic comedy. It's more of a character drama about Birdee (Sandra Bullock) moving back home and the main story line being a romance with Harry Connick Jr.Birdee, and the film, are very down-to-earth. Although she lived in Chicago, she's much more suited to the small-town life that she grew up in in Texas. They don't go for much of the obvious comedy of big-city girl versus small-town country girl. And that's a good thing.The young daughter can get annoying, and the romantic comedy angle is transparent from the beginning. But the natural drama that Birdee goes through in trying to rebuild her life after a public divorce is done well enough that it makes "Hope Floats" worth watching.