Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Just what I expected

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Hope Floats (1998): Dir: Forest Whitaker / Cast: Sandra Bullock, Harry Connick Jr., Gena Rowland, Mae Whitman, Rosanna Arquette: One of the dumbest romances ever concocted. Sandra Bullock is invited onto a talk show believing that she will receive a makeover only to be met with the news that her best friend and husband have been having an affair. She and her daughter move in with her mother and reminded of the incident by those who saw it twice. She begins work at a photo lab and falls in love with that high school chum she never liked. Director Forest Whitaker never capitalizes on a single scene so we have Mae Whitman get beat up at school and then just up and walk away. The bedroom scene to cheer her up is equally stupid. The death of Bullock's mother was unnecessary. The setup had all the potential at the talk show but instead it sends Bullock through tired formula clichés. Gena Rowland is reduced to a prop who will eventually keel over. Harry Connick Jr. is flat as that old love who never seems to be anything other than a bad reminder of the past. Mae Whitman deserves better than to be playing the bunt of a bad joke. Rosanna Arquette is featured in the talk show sequence and we're reminded how superior she is to this pitiful garbage. The result is a worthless romantic puke that should be tied to a large rock and tossed at sea so that it may not float again. Score: 0 / 10

Most people will probably watch this movie expecting romance, but they will be getting a whole lot more of things they didn't expect. This is basically the opposite of a feel-good movie, since it contains an ugly divorce, sadness, death and a whole lot of awkwardness.It doesn't help that the acting is really bad. Sandra Bullock is a very limited actor and has a very narrow range of emotions, and Harry Connick Jr is a total disaster as her romantic suitor. It is too bad that the director Forest Whitaker, who himself is an Oscar winner, didn't cast proper actors.The plot made me felt awkward many times, as Connick's romantic courtship of Bullock borders on stalking on numerous occasions, and he has no problem making moves on her when she is clearly not ready and even says so to him. The movie generally lacks tender moments but it is full of awkward moments, and that was not what I had in mind when I sat down to watch this.

Birdie learns on a TV talk show that her husband has been sleeping with her best friend. She packs up her car and drives to her mother's home in Texas. Her mother still lives in the same house as Birdie grew up. She talks to many people from her past as she tries to figure out her future.This is a story of how some people will do anything to make other happy, when all it does is make everyone miserable. While it does show the dangers of being a people pleaser and trying to be someone you're not; some will find it hard to see this message past the character of Justin attempting to date a married woman.

Sandra Bullock, Harry Connick, Jr., and Gena Rowlands star in "Hope Floats," a 1998 film directed by Forest Whitaker.Bullock, who 13 years ago looks exactly as she does now, plays Birdee Pruitt, a small town beauty queen and cheerleader who married the star of the football team, Bill (Michael Pare) and left for the big city. They have a daughter, Bernice (Mae Whitman). When Birdee is invited on a talk show, she is led to believe it's for a makeover. However, it's a Jerry Springer type show, and when she gets there, her best friend tells her that she's been having an affair with Birdee's husband - and they're in love. Bill verifies it.Angry and hurt, Birdee packs up her daughter and moves back to Texas with her outspoken taxidermist mother (Gena Rowlands). An old flame (Harry Connick Jr.) reappears, but Birdee is unable to move forward. She's in love with her husband and wants him back.This film seems to have low scores on IMDb, giving validation to my theory that a) reviewers on IMDb are mostly men; and b) young men; who c) like action, special effects, futuristic, and science fiction films."Hope Floats" is actually a very sweet movie with lovely performances from everyone involved. Bullock is warm and likable as a depressed woman who comes back to town in disgrace and has to face up to people she wasn't particularly nice to in high school. Connick is handsome and charming. Rowlands does a terrific job as Birdee's confident and sometimes overbearing mother who deeply loves her daughter and granddaughter. Mae Whitman as the child Bernice is fantastic as a hurt little girl waiting for her daddy to take her home.Some of the best scenes occur when Birdee visits her demented father in a nursing home.I thought this was an effective film. No bombs, no violence, just some poignant real life - a single mom, a father with dementia, and what it's like to go home and start over.I love films like "Speed," "Inception," "Salt" and films of the classic era. There's room for all kinds of films, and there is room for an actress with the warmth and charm of Sandra Bullock. If you're not a fan, skip it. If you are, you'll love it.