Hope Springs

Portrayals of sex on the big screen don’t always have to involve sculpted young bodies getting down and dirty under the sheets.

One of the sexiest movies in quite a while, for example, is Hope Springs, which features two characters on the wrong side of 50 who never take their clothes off.

The comedy examines a 31-year marriage that is falling apart, and the attempts to rekindle the romance therein. It speaks to universal truths about relationships, with some exaggerations for comic effect.

Most of all, however, the film benefits from the star power of Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones, who are up to the task by conveying both the strength and vulnerability in their respective characters.

Jones plays Arnold, an Omaha accountant who views marriage as more functional than romantic – his curmudgeonly outlook compares it to “paying all the bills” – and who has barely paid attention to the fact that his wife, Kay (Streep), is frustrated by their lack of intimacy.

So Kay books a trip for them for a week in New England to see a respected therapist (Steve Carell), in a desperate attempt to rediscover their spark. Arnold becomes unintentionally hostile and condescending toward the idea, but reluctantly agrees, even when the therapist probes the most private aspects of their sex life and offers them steps toward fixing their troubles.

Both characters keep their emotions somewhat repressed, requiring the actors to use facial expressions and body language. Director David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada), working from a clever script by Vanessa Taylor (TV’s “Everwood”), smartly stays out of the way and allows his stars to shine.

Although much of the film essentially is a couple airing its dirty laundry, the result is both funny and touching, even if it’s also cutesy and contrived to a certain degree.

Hope Springs hardly pushes any boundaries with regard to cinematic sex and bawdy dialogue, although it might have the demure target demographic blushing. To the film’s credit, it might give many of those moviegoers little issues with which they can identify as it segues from comedy into drama.

The title has a double meaning, the most important of which is optimistic if not exactly inspirational.

Rated PG-13, 99 minutes.