Directed competently, if not especially stylishly, by Forest Whitaker, Hope Floats is routine soaper material, and the attempts at "eccentric" local color--a taxidermist mother (Gena Rowlands) who talks in aphorisms, a boy who likes to dress up as animals--play like they were ripped from the script of a failed sitcom pilot. Also, the movie hinges on a spurious premise: that people secretly hope for the comeuppance of their more popular high-school classmates (as if anyone still thinks about them at all). But Whitman almost makes the film worth seeing; her reactions to the heartbreak and silliness around her have a genuine quality that the rest of the film cannot muster.