Hope Springs
31年目の夫婦げんか
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
After 31 years, a wife drags her husband to intensive couples therapy to get their sex life back.
Kay and Arnold Soames of Omaha have been married for thirty-one years. Since their youngest child left for college they have slept in separate bedrooms, and there is no physical affection left between them. Kay wants her marriage back. One day she tells Arnold that she has paid for a week of intensive couples counselling with Dr Bernie Feld in a coastal resort town in Maine. Arnold, a man of fixed routines, insists that nothing is wrong, but goes.
In Dr Feld's office they try to say what they feel, and he asks increasingly frank questions about their sex life. Arnold, private and old-fashioned, is angry and defensive and will not see how disappointed his wife is. Kay goes alone to a bar, drinks several glasses of wine, confides in the bartender, Karen, and learns that hardly anyone else is having sex either. Arnold visits a maritime museum.
Back together, they share a bed for the first time in years, and Kay wakes to find his arm around her. Dr Feld pushes them further. They make halting attempts at intimacy in their budget motel and in a cinema, and the second ends in disaster. In a session alone with Arnold, Dr Feld asks him bluntly whether this is the best he can do. Arnold arranges a romantic dinner and a night at a luxury inn, but their attempt to make love in front of the fire fails. At the last session Dr Feld tells them they have made real progress and should continue therapy at home.
In Omaha the old habits return. Kay offers to look after a colleague's pets and packs a bag to stay there, a first step towards leaving him. That night each lies awake. Then Arnold comes to her room, they hold each other, and they make love, warmly and quietly. By morning the marriage has turned in a better direction. Later that year, as Kay once dreamed, they renew their vows on a beach, with Dr Feld and their grown children there.
Starring
Meryl Streepas Kay Soames
A wife of thirty-one years in Omaha who wants intimacy back in her marriage and signs them both up for therapy.
Kay Soames’s story
Kay has slept apart from Arnold since their youngest left for college. She books a week of couples counselling in Maine, says she will go alone if she must, and Arnold follows. In Dr Feld's office she says what she wants while her husband bristles; alone in a bar, over several glasses of wine, she learns from Karen, the bartender, that hardly anyone else is having sex either. After waking one morning with his arm around her, she tries again, in their motel and in a cinema, and at an inn where his romantic night fails. Back in Omaha the old routine returns, and she packs a bag to stay at a colleague's house, a first step towards leaving him. That night Arnold comes to her room. Later that year they renew their vows on a beach.
Tommy Lee Jonesas Arnold Soames
Kay's husband, a creature of routine who insists their marriage is fine and turns defensive in therapy.
Arnold Soames’s story
Arnold is an Omaha man of fixed habits who sleeps in his own room and insists that nothing is wrong. When Kay says she will go to counselling in Maine without him, he follows. In the sessions he is angry and defensive, and while Kay drinks at a bar, he tours a maritime museum. Sharing a bed with her for the first time in years, he wakes with his arm around her, but their attempts in a motel and a cinema go badly. Asked by Dr Feld whether this is the best he can do, he books a romantic dinner and a luxury inn, and the night fails. Back home, with Kay's bag packed, he lies awake, then crosses the hall to her room, and they make love. Later that year they renew their vows on a beach.
Steve Carellas Dr Bernard 'Bernie' Feld
The Maine therapist whose intensive week asks the couple ever franker questions about their marriage and sex life.
Elisabeth Shueas Karen
A bartender in the Maine town to whom Kay confides her unhappiness over several glasses of wine.
Why it matters
Hope Springs is about sexlessness in a long marriage, and about how ordinary and unspoken it can be: the bartender Kay confides in tells her that hardly anyone else is having sex either. The film gives that silence two faces. Kay has been lonely inside the marriage for years and finally says so; Arnold believes nothing is wrong, because nothing has changed. The film takes both seriously. Its therapy scenes are full of long pauses and questions no one wants to answer, and its turning point is not the grand gesture, which fails, but a small, frightened step across a hallway. Meryl Streep was nominated for a Golden Globe for the role. The question it leaves is whether desire that has gone quiet can be woken, and whether the one who asks for more is breaking the marriage or saving it.