Hope Floats (1998)

User 1 Review:

Here's a tip for budding film makers: when making a film in the "character study" genre, make the characters interesting. This movie fails at this. This movie consists of dozens of mostly depressing scenes of which any given one usually has no connection to what precedes or what follows. It was a painful endeavor to sit through this movie waiting in vain for something - anything - to happen. A couple of times I found myself actually slapping my forehead at the inanity being presented. I managed to make it past the one-hour mark before I availed myself, mercifully, of an early exit. There was a lot of "acting" happening with the cast in this film; unfortunately, they hadnt much to work with.

User 2 Review:

The critics are right about Gloria Bell and the audience is wrong: The film is a minor masterpiece, with a riveting performance by Julianne Moore. No, dopes, it is not necessary for a movie to have a "plot that moves along," or characters that "achieve some enlightenment in the end" or, worse still, is "uplifting" or "inspiring?! Not too much happens in the film, but that's really the point - the character here is stuck in a pattern of boredom and lack of love.. and the profile that emerges is highly original and moving. It's a quiet film that requires patience, which is richly rewarded.

User 3 Review:

Yikes! A depressing string of cliches about a divorced woman whose kids are slowly detaching, who has a romance you care nothing about and which ends badly, twice. Bizarre moments that seem like plot twists - the crazy neighbor pounding on her door, never to be addressed - but no, there IS no plot. This film seems to think it's artsy, but the emperor's clothes come off and reveal that it's just boring, pointless, and pretentiously glum. It doesn't end with her "finding her voice;" rather, in the last scene she looks like she's losing her mind. Worst film i've seen in recent memory. I stayed to marvel at what a terrible movie it was, and I wasn't disappointed.

User 4 Review:

A huge hint when reading these audience reviews: If it's several paragraphs long, expounding on the "delights" of this movie, it was probably written by someone attached to the film. The filmmakers forgot to provoke us to care. There is no redemption here, no Hero's Journey. The story has no arc, and the characters don't learn anything. There is no whip-smart banter, no clever surprise. If you want to spend two hours of your life watching the same irritating, horrible choices made over and over again with no change, this is your movie. Professional reviewers look for various components that have nothing to do with actual entertainment, which is the only possible reason that their scores are so much higher. Trust the audience on this one. You don't just have a few outliers. The majority is telling the truth.