"Hope Floats" starts off as a sharp parody of talk-show television. Kathy Najimy, in a dead-on portrayal of a Ricki Lake type, plays Toni Post, a pseudo-sincere TV hostess. Poor, unsuspecting Birdie (Sandra Bullock) comes on the show, expecting a free makeover. Well, she's in for a shock when she finds out that her husband has been having an affair with her best friend.
It's a tense moment, and Birdie is stunned. Things don't get any better when she finds out that her husband and his mistress have been having sex all throughout the house, including the living room.
We feel bad as we see Birdie try to keep her composure in the face of growing humiliation. We feel worse when we see Bernice (Mae Whitman), Birdie's daughter, in the audience crying as everyone around her cheers.
For sure, that is a bold and searing way to start any movie. That's why it is so sad that by the end of this flick, not only has the story gone flat and boring, but it has lost any edge it promised.
After the on-air catastrophe, Birdie and Bernice pack up and leave their Chicago residence for Smithville, Texas. It's Birdie's hometown, and after moving in with her mother, Ramona (Gena Rowlands), she starts bumping into old friends. Most notably, there's Justin Matisse (Harry Connick, Jr.).
In case anyone doubts whether the two of them will ever wind up together, director Forest Whitaker ("Waiting to Exhale") provides a guitar strum whenever Justin walks in a room. It's like watching the Diet Coke commercials where the female office workers gawk at the male construction worker on a daily basis.
Most of the bright spots in the film come from Whitman, who turns in a surprisingly effective performance. She is not cutesy, but tough and whiny, like a real kid. Sometimes she's a little too precocious to be believed, but overall her character is the most interesting in the film. Because of Whitman, a scene late in the film with her and her father is fairly powerful, not like the bland and trite stuff the rest of film offers by that point.
The storylines revolving around Bernice are also more interesting than any of the others. There's a nice montage with her squaring off with a bully, Big Dolores, after school. Unfortunately, after setting up a nice subplot about Bernice and Dolores, the film drops it midway through for no reason.
There's also an odd and kind of annoying little kid named Travis (Cameron Finley) who lives with Ramona. He's her grandson, and his mom is off in California, presumably working on a television pilot. Turns out that Justin has also been in California recently but left suddenly for no reason.
Could Travis be the result of Justin and Birdie's sister? Will Birdie go back on national television to put her husband in his place? Will Bernice get revenge on Big Dolores?
The movie asks all these questions but never answers them. The only thing that really matters is the romance between Birdie and Justin. Too bad Whitaker doesn't realize that is one of the weakest points of the movie.
There's some chemistry between Bullock and Connick Jr., but a few encounters at a diner, on the street or at a dance really don't do enough here. Plus, the dialogue between the two is pretty stale stuff. It comes off sounding like the results of a "How to Write a Romantic Scene" manual. The words are formulaic, unnatural and stupid.
However, Bullock, despite the poor material she's given, is very good in her role. She has lots of reservation with the role and really is proficient in portraying a once-strong woman struggling to get her act together.
The first half of the movie really isn't too bad, but in the second half, most everything falls apart. The film becomes downright boring and overly cheesy. Whitaker goes crazy with random slow motion shots and corny transitions.
There's actually a very good scene with Birdie in an unemployment office with Dot (Dee Hennigan), the former fat girl in Birdie's high school. The scene is tense, well written and nicely acted. The problem with "Hope Floats" is that it has a handful of these strong moments, but they are scattered in empty fluff. The movie just can't get it together for the end.
