When love blooms in the autumn of your years ...

By James Rocchi
Special to MSN Movies

In "Hope Springs," Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep play a long-married couple who go into an intense one-week session of counseling to try and learn more about their marriage — and, of course, along the way rediscover and re-think their love. The interesting thing isn't the idea of Tommy Lee Jones doing romantic comedy; it's the fact that Streep and Jones' marriage in the film is in its 31st year, and part of the film's plot is talking about the realities of falling in love — even falling back in love — later on in your years.

It's easy to see at least some of the box-office reasoning behind the greenlighting of movies like "Hope Springs," even in what seems like a movie marketplace ruled by kids. Older couples have money to spend, and they reliably still see films in theaters. Also, as each generation of actors ages, it's easier to pick up Cupid's bow than it is a gun, so romance appeals to the actor who want to keep in the game. Hollywood's seemingly obsessed with youth and young love, more invested in the storytelling around a first kiss than intrigued by the stories that lead to a thousandth — and yet, as this list of films ranging from cinematic classics to tear-jerking animated masterpieces demonstrates, there's great art, real truth and even hilarious comedy to be found when love's bloom comes around, to paraphrase Sinatra yet again, in the autumn of your years.

Bing: Learn more about 'Hope Springs'

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(Sony Pictures)