David Holt (rawiri42) Was Bill Pruitt totally mad to want to leave Birdee (Sandra Bullock)? I mean, if you're going to make a movie about a cuckolded wife, you can't do it effectively using Sandra as your actress. She is the most desirable woman on the planet - not just in looks but as a genuinely sincere person - not to mention a damn good actress. Heck! I can't look at a woman without comparing her with Sandra (which, I guess, is why I'm single - no one meets the standard!)Even in this movie, I can't help feeling that Birdee has a lot of the real Sandra in her. Even though she is beautiful, she is not conceited or vindictive. Harry Connick Jr. as Justin is equally sensitive and doesn't stalk her, even though he clearly counts his blessings that he has a second chance to have what he was too slow to get the first time. He genuinely woos her in the real old-fashioned way which is quite a pleasant change from most so-called romance movies these days.And Mae Whitman as Birdee's 9-year-old daughter, Bernice shows her to be the star that she has, since Hope Floats was made, become. It always amazes me how young children are able to act so convincingly in traumatic domestic situations such as Bernice had to. Full marks to Mae!Of course, a true queen of the silver screen, Gena Rowlands as Birdee's mum, is everything we have come to expect of her - a tender, all-knowing matriarch who holds everything together.All in all, a fine movie that, in my opinion, is worth more than the 5.8 that viewers have given it. Definitely a movie I will happily watch again, and again over the years.

Jackson Booth-Millard I would probably never have found out about this film if I hadn't gone to Hollywood to see Forest Whitaker accepting the Riviera award from Sandra Bullock on stage at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, he directed her in this film, I had to see if it was any good. Basically beautiful Birdee Pruitt (Bullock) is humiliated on the Ricki Lake style talk show presented by Toni Post (Kathy Najimy) who gets her husband Bill (Michael Paré) to confess he has been having an affair with her best friend Connie Phillips (Rosanna Arquette). After this she decides to return to her hometown in Smithville, Texas to live with her mother Ramona Calvert (Gena Rowlands), but of course the whole town knows about the televised confession by Connie. Birdee reacquaints herself with old friends from high school and living in town who can't help but rub her face in her TV appearance, but she has her little daughter Bernice (Independence Day's Mae Whitman) to cheer her up. Feeling depressed and trying to get on in her new job processing photos and stop the taunts she meets another old friend Justin Matisse (Harry Connick Jr.) who helps her get on in any way he can. He still has feelings for her, and of course as they spend more time together their relationship turns into love, and he comforts her all the way in whatever she has to go through. In the end she suffers the death of her mother Ramona, says a final goodbye to ex-husband Bill, and Birdee considers marrying Justin. Also starring Cameron Finley as Travis and Bill Cobbs as Nurse. Bullock is likable as the normal woman made known for the wrong reasons, Connick Jr. is a little cheesy but alright as her love, and Rowlands does well as the Alzeimer's Disease suffering mother, I didn't think there was much of a plot, the romance thing was adequate, overall it wasn't such a bad romantic comedy drama. Okay!

napierslogs "Hope Floats" is too dramatic to be a romantic comedy. It's more of a character drama about Birdee (Sandra Bullock) moving back home and the main story line being a romance with Harry Connick Jr.Birdee, and the film, are very down-to-earth. Although she lived in Chicago, she's much more suited to the small-town life that she grew up in in Texas. They don't go for much of the obvious comedy of big-city girl versus small-town country girl. And that's a good thing.The young daughter can get annoying, and the romantic comedy angle is transparent from the beginning. But the natural drama that Birdee goes through in trying to rebuild her life after a public divorce is done well enough that it makes "Hope Floats" worth watching.

Rozinda This is not quite "my type of movie" but I am a Sandra Bullock fan so I watch everything of hers. Some RomComs are delightful, some are plain boring, and some like this one are thoughtprovoking and often distressing along the way.8 out of 10 because it's a good story, even if some aspects of it made me angry! I was simply disgusted by the TV show scenes. What filth the TV programme was - bringing someone on under completely false pretences. Birdie believes she's on the show for a nice time - a makeover. Now when she discovered it was instead a setup to insult, hurt and degrade her by her nauseatingly immature and spiteful exhibitionist husband and his current equally immature and spiteful lay, why didn't Birdiee slap her repulsive husband and tell the whole TV audience what she thinks of him for playing this dirty trick? And then demand that makeover she was told she was getting or threaten to sue the TV co. for false pretenses? I think they'd then have either had to agree to her demand - or hurriedly hustle all three protagonists off the stage if Birdie kicked up enough of a fuss.But I suppose she'd find that when she agreed to appear on the programme she signed some legal doc and didn't read some fine print that told her she couldn't complain no matter what the outcome. Now if I saw a clause like that in any contract for appearing on TV, no way would I sign and hadn't she ever seen this TV programme before and realised what it was really like?However, for this story to work, she has to have her confidence smashed and be unable to think what to do when faced with her smirking husband and his vicious bit on the side. It's a feature of some Sandra Bullock movies that I have to say I don't often like though sometimes it works well. In this it's debatable. Do we want the movie to show how Birdee recovers her confidence eventually? Or do we want to see her putting up a spirited defence and shaming the gutless berk she married?Wouldn't the TV people receive mail from people backing Birdee against her ex? Why wasn't this passed on to her? Yes, of course she'd be distraught and after an initial outburst become very depressed. And yes, she may well be so shocked at the time she wouldn't know what to say, as is the case in this story, and it's not easy to be so feisty as I suggest she could have been. But I do seriously wonder at the legal situation raised here.Anyway, the story is as it is, one has to forget one's outrage at such disgusting and spiteful TV filth and get on with the story which is the usual kind of sad stuff for those left behind when a husband commits adultery and makes off blithely with his current fancy. It's clear Daddy didn't really care much at all for his kiddie - all he does is phone a few times. What about visits? Tough if it's a long journey. But perhaps one should be grateful he didn't try to visit in case he also tried to snatch the child. Did he pay alimony? Well, Birdie gets a mediocre job and that's quite amusing even if disappointing she can't get anything better in this back of beyond type town - however, she shows that anything can become better if you make something of it yourself.In the end Birdee wins out and things improve for the daughter who after continually standing up for her vile father and thereby hurting her loving and caring mother deeply, finally discovers in the most hurful way what a file b...... her father is. A sad discovery that would surely damage her a little for life, but her mother gets together with an old flame and all turns out happily. Not a film I'd watch again too enthusiastically because one gets so annoyed with the despicable husband and squeeze getting away with everything. But I'd recommend it to anyone who likes Sandra Bullock to see it at least once. As always she acts superbly. spite of that, I am amazed at some of the carping against this movie. I really wonder if such people have seen the same movie as I have.