Once in a great while, least of all in the summer months, a movie comes along that is not merely entertaining, it is enlightening, thought-provoking, a conversation starter. And it deals with something relevant to our lives.

Marriage, for example.

In "Hope Springs," Oscar winners Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep play Kay and Arnold, a couple married 31 years who may not make it to 32.

Everybody in Great Hope Springs, Maine, it seems, is in on the local joke. People come here to work on their marriages with sex therapist Dr. Feld.

"Tryin' to get the old magic back?" the bartender (Elizabeth Shue) knowingly asks. Then, with a rueful smile, the killer follow-up: "Didja ever have it?"

Kay isn't sure anymore. Married for 31 years to tax accountant Arnold, she's desperate to end the silence, the lack of touching, the exile to separate bedrooms.

Arnold, a growling bear of a penny pincher, is angry about the cost, about having to talk to a stranger about his private life - just generally annoyed.