5 For: Hope Springs (2012)

In this week’s Movie Memory Machine: Five For mini-episode, Landen and Truman unpack five films that more meaningfully—and sometimes more messily—explore marriage, communication, and relationship evolution than Hope Springs ever dared. From cozy golden pond chats to sci-fi couples therapy gone wrong, this list offers everything from prestige Swedish drama to 1930s slapstick divorce. Hope might spring eternal, but these movies bring the nuance.

Films Discussed:

1. On Golden Pond (1981)

2. The One I Love (2014)

3. Scenes from a Marriage (1973 or 2021)

4. The Awful Truth (1937)

5. Before Midnight (2013)

Topics Covered:

• Sunset vibes and legacy pairings in On Golden Pond

• The One I Love and the lo-fi sci-fi spin on relationship repair

• Bergman’s emotionally devastating take on marriage in Scenes from a Marriage

• Slapstick meets sincerity in the classic The Awful Truth

• Before Midnight as the most honest depiction of midlife marriage ever captured on screen

Key Takeaways:

• Hope Springs may have opened the door, but these films walk through it (and sometimes slam it)

• Scenes from a Marriage is therapy before therapy

• Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke prove love isn’t always quiet sunsets—it’s arguments in Greece too

• The Awful Truth showed us that Hollywood’s been flirting with divorce for nearly a century

Listener Prompt:
Which movie got marriage right—or hilariously wrong? Tag us with your picks using #MovieMemoryMachine.

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