'Hope Springs' review: mature themes abound in Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones vehicle

FILM_REVIEW_HOPE_SPRINGS_20460209.JPGView full sizeMeryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as a couple seeking marriage advice from a doctor played by Steve Carell in "Hope Springs."
When the MPAA announces the reasons for a film’s rating, they frequently use phrases like “mature themes” or “adult situations.” But when they do so, they’re usually talking about teenagers trying to get lucky or hostages in a bank holdup, not the sorts of things faced by your average American grownup. (Then again, who wants to see a movie about taking out a second mortgage or trying to unclog a toilet?)

So when you notice that the abysmally titled movie “Hope Springs” is rated PG-13 for “mature thematic content involving sexuality,” you might then be surprised to discover that’s exactly what it’s about. Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones, two of the most reliable workhorses in the business, star as a Nebraskan couple with a 30-year marriage that has devolved into a separate-bedrooms detente. She demands, and he ultimately acquiesces, that they attend a last-ditch weeklong couples counseling program run by a Dr. Feld (Steve Carell).

Given Hollywood’s track record with the over-30 demographic, you’d expect “Hope Springs” to lean toward embarrassing shenanigans and soothing platitudes — and, on occasion, it does. But at other times it takes an almost bracingly explicit attitude toward issues of sexual intimacy, to the degree that just seeing this film might count as therapy for some married couples. The PG-13 rating is justified, and should be taken literally, though I can’t imagine too many parents bringing their kids to this one. Talk about an awkward car ride home. 

(100 min., rated PG-13, multiple theaters) Grade: B–
Marc Mohan is a Portland freelance writer;