After picking up her latest Oscar for The Iron Lady, Meryl Streep is back in less demanding, comfy comedy mode, reuniting with her Devil Wears Prada director David Frankel for marriage counselling pic Hope Springs. The trailer is online at Moviefone and can be viewed below.
Streep plays Maeve Soames, seen celebrating 31 years of marriage to husband Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones). To say they’ve slipped into something of a rut is an understatement: Arnold in particular is a grumpy, gruff malcontent who loves his wife but doesn’t know how to show it. Hmm, some typecasting for Jones there then.
Encouraged by a self-help book written by Dr Bernie Field (Steve Carell), Maeve decides that her marriage needs a counselling-fuelled jolt and recruits a reluctant Arnold to attend one of Dr Field’s intensive one-week retreats. Soon the couple are confronting the state of their union and Maeve in particular is being encouraged to explore her suppressed desires…
It all seems amiable enough, and it’s easy to see that this cast could make it something more than the basic description and even this trailer can provide. And let’s face it: Tommy Lee Jones gives the best grouch this side of Sesame Street’s Oscar.
Hope Springs is tentatively set for a January 2013 release.