Hope FloatsMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Hope Floats."

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 42 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
13 OK for kids 13+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 70
    Los Angeles Times | Kevin Thomas

    A sharper edge could have taken a pretty good, if uneven, picture to greater heights, considering its potent ingredients and actors. Read full review

  • 60
    The New York Times | Elvis Mitchell

    Hope Floats, which often resembles a rosy commercial, does indulge in too much awkward slow motion, and in occasional embarrassing romps that are meant to signify family fun. Read full review

  • 50
    L.A. Weekly | Ella Taylor

    Cloying, unoriginal stuff, rescued -- barely -- by the easy affection that courses between Bullock and Connick Jr., and by the lovely cinematography of Caleb Deschanel. Read full review

  • 50
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    A turgid melodrama with the emotional range of a sympathy card. Read full review

  • 42
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    The pond is so shallow in this wan romance that there's no room for anything to float. Read full review

  • 40
    Washington Post | Rita Kempley

    Despite its hopeful title and a warm inland location, this dawdling family dramedy proves as sodden as a bed-wetter's mattress. Read full review

  • 40
    Austin Chronicle | Marjorie Baumgarten

    Hope doesn't float in this film so much as it rises to the surface and then stagnates. Read full review

  • 30
    The Onion A.V. Club | Keith Phipps

    If there's one thing more heartbreaking than a crying child, it's a crying child wearing thick glasses, an image exploited numerous times throughout the course of the dull, uninvolving, tissue-thin Hope Floats. Read full review

  • 30
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    A dreadfully dull, completely conventional story of a young wife's recuperation from being unceremoniously dumped, this is a by-the-numbers bit of emotional calculation without a single fresh, original or offbeat move in its system, apart from a nifty opening sequence. Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    Floats is corny and false, with a script by Steven Rogers that's almost 100 percent artificial sweetener. Read full review


Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 13+ Redemptive drama ready made for family viewing.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this movie deals with the separation of Birdee Pruitt and her husband Bill after Birdee learns that he has been having an affair with her best friend on a national talk show. The separation is traumatic to the couple's daughter, Bernice, and the film may be difficult for children who have had to deal with their parents' separation or divorce. Characters drink and argue. Sexual activity is referenced, but neither shown nor discussed in detail. The film also deals frankly with death.
  • Families can talk about the difficulty Birdee has moving home. Birdee calls her mother "the town joke" and says she was embarrassed of her mother as a child. Do other characters in the film seem to see Ramona Calvert as a joke? How does moving home humble Birdie? Families may also want to discuss Ramona Calvert's death, as it may be troubling to young viewers.
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Not an issue
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Birdee grabs her daughter Bernice's arm during an argument. A classmate beats Bernice up after class.
  • sex false0 Sex: Not an issue
  • language false0 Language: Not an issue
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Birdee works in a 1-hour photo lab.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: In one scene, Birdee gets drunk at the local bar and stays out all night.

Hope Floats Movie Ratings + Reviews

Fans say

I'll Pass 38 fan reviews

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