Hope Floats (1998) 2 1/2 stars out of 4
Birdee Pruitt's life is a mess.
On a nationally televised daytime talk show, she learns that for the past year her high-school sweetheart husband has been having an affair with Birdee's best friend.
Shattered and humiliated, Birdee packs up her belongings and her daughter, Bernice, and flees for home - Smithville, Texas.
Here, the former high school beauty queen seeks escape and solace, but finds neither. Instead, her life grows even more complicated as she has to deal with an eccentric mother whom she never really took the time to know, a daughter who desperately misses her father and the prospect of a new romance.
These are the paddles that turn the plot wheel of Hope Floats, a two-hankie tearjerker, ably directed by Forest Whitaker and starring Sandra Bullock, trying to make amends for Speed 2: Cruise Control.
Whitaker has a wonderful eye for composition, keeping his camera close to the protagonists, giving the viewer an intimate picture of their interactions.
Where Hope Floats goes wrong is in Bullock's interpretation of Birdee. Bullock, who is also one of the movie's executive producer's portrays Birdee as a wounded bird afraid of trying to fly from the nest.
Birdee spends most of the film moping about and complaining, dwelling on the shambles that once was her life.
Birdee is a one-woman pity party, so much so that instead of feeling any empathy for her, you want to grap her by the neck, give her and good shake and berate her into moving on with her life.
Yet by the time Birdee does change course, spurred on by a family tragedy, the movie is almost over.
Bullock makes a valiant attempt to elicit sympathy for Birdee. She sprinkles humor throughout, but it's not enough to compensate for all that comes before.
Whitaker, however, has surrounded Bullock with a fine cast and it is these people, especially Mae Whitman as Bernice and the timeless Gena Rowlands as Birdee's mother, who help carry the picture.
Whitman is a delight as the confused little girl forced into a situation beyond her control or comprehension. She continually switches from berating and sassing her mother to displaying her need for love and affection from the parent who did not desert her.
Whitman's best scene is a heartbreaking encounter with her visiting father.
Rowlands has made eccentricity an artform. Her Ramona is a flamboyant, Auntie Mame-like, larger-than-life Texan. Yet she is wise enough to see the pain and suffering Birdee's continued wallowing is inflicting not only on her daughter but on her granddaughter as well.
Harry Connick Jr. as Justin, the quiet man who wants to become part of Birdee's life, gives a low-key performance. Without being pushy, he gently tries to glide Birdee onto a new path through continual support and displays of affection.
Hope Floats, at a little under two hours, moves gracefully, thanks to Whitaker's wonderful eye for composition and detail. The director, as he showed in Waiting to Exhale, has an affinity for actresses.
He elicits a textured performance from Bullock. She is the antithesis of the usual perky characters she has played on screen. But in Hope Floats, she goes a bit too far in the other direction, nearly becoming one of the walking dead.
Still, amidst a summer of rampaging lizards and calamitous comets, Hope Floats is a nice quiet respite.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or cbloom@iquest.net
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