I can’t bring myself to recommend the new release Hope Springs (imagine an ABC sitcom about your parents’ sex life), though I’ll admit it’s something of a master class in screen acting. The film calls upon Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones to bring depth to characters who aren’t very sympathetic or even all that interesting, and the veteran performers apply all their resources to the challenge. (And Steve Carrell, in an imploded performance as Streep and Jones’s therapist, looks very plausible in a tie.) In a way, Hope Springs is as pure a demonstration of their talents as you’re likely to see, since there’s hardly any story or directorial style to mitigate them.