The Hours

"The Hours" is about time - time we have left to make our lives enjoyable or to spend it in misery. It features the lives of three women, which might explain why half the film-goers (the males) might not want to see it and why it was left out of Ebert and Roeper's Top 10 films. If that perception is true, that would be a shame. "The Hours" is a wonderfully crafted film about universal themes of life and death, suppression and freedom, and unresolved love. That it is told from the viewpoint of three women should not diminish any of its appeal. Virginia Woolf must combat her life long mental affliction even as husband Leonard tries to manage her condition. Using the novel, 'Mrs Dalloway', the film conveys the heartache of isolation and forlorn lives in two other women who are directly connected to the book. In 1951, we meet Laura and Dan who, with their young son, would seem an ideal family. But Laura yearns for freedom, much as Mrs. Dalloway, and she must choose between giving up her family or dying. Move to 2001, and there is yet another Mrs. Dalloway in Claire and her dogged responsibility toward her former lover, Richard, now dying of AIDS. The themes of liberation, lesbianism, and dying enthrall all three women, and one does die in order that those around her might value even more the living. You cannot find three better actresses to portray these very complex individuals, in Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, and Nicole Kidman, any or all should be nominated for Oscars. An equally fine supporting cast of Ed Harris, John Reilly, Stephen Dillane, Claire Danes, and Allison Janey make "The Hours" one of the most interesting and intelligent melodramas to come along in a while.

"The Hours" is not the easiest movie to describe. It portrays three women affected by Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway". The first is Woolf herself (Nicole Kidman) in the 1920's, slowly but surely descending into madness. The second is 1950's housewife Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), beginning to feel unfulfilled with the suburban lifestyle. The third is present-day Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep), contemplating the future.

This is an interesting movie, although it certainly is a downer. Moore's role is particularly interesting, since she played almost exactly the same kind of character in "Far from Heaven", released around the same time. Also starring are Ed Harris, John C. Reilly, Claire Danes, and Jeff Daniels. Certainly worth seeing.

Even if there is no apparent reason to the anguish. This movies tells us the different stories of three women living in different times but united by the same thread: the difficulty to harmonize the world that is within their heads with the world outside which is so much different from the former. The first one is a real character: the famous British novelist Virginia Woolf whose novels depict characters so much like the other two and who has ended up by committing suicide at the age of 58 by drowning herself in a river. There is one of her most famous novels, "Mrs. Dalloway" that is over present in the movie since the novelist is precisely writing it at the time and feeling greatly moved and even anguished by that creative work. Of the other two women who lived much later, one is reading the book and the other one is called Mrs. Dalloway by a friend who is a poet and dying of AIDS, probably because he thought that she was much like the character in the novel. Suicide is also present in the other stories in a dramatic way. The image sequences in the movie are constantly crossing themselves, telling the three stories simultaneously thus underlining the similitude of the episodes in the life of the three women and in their states of mind. To appreciate this movie you must be familiar with Virginia Woolf's peculiar sensitivity so well expressed in her novels and the characters she created. This is not a realist movie and rather a movie where just like in her novels the most important feature is the stream of consciousness within the women's minds sometimes shown in acts or words and sometimes by the silence or their face's expressions. The movie direction and the actresses' performance is rather successful in making us feel in tune with it all.

In all honesty, as much as I liked Nicole Kidman's performance, the movie was made for me with Julianne Moore's. She made me so nervous, has me so much on edge, cause you didn't know what the hell was wrong with her. Did she have a crush on Toni Collette? Did she just have a breakdown? Does she want to burn the house down? To the movie's credit, you don't know what exactly is wrong, until the end. But as tense as it made me, I realized that in most movies you are clearly tipped off as far as who is angry, and why. This movie doesn't, and I didn't appreciate that until it was over.

Kidman was great, but I've always thought she had more talent than she was given credit for. Not many people could have made "To Die For" so convincing. Kudos to Nic for her career choices, post-divorce.

Streep, Ed Harris and Jeff Daniels were non-entities. I worship Streep and Ed Harris, but their part of the story didn't do a single thing for me. I kept waiting to see if Julianne was going to drive her car off a cliff. Without having seen all the nominees in Best Supporting Actress, I'd have to say another actress would have to go pretty damn far to impress me as much as she did. 8/10.

When I asked him about this one, the young chap in the video rental shop said it was just about the best film on the shelves at the time. I had no idea about it whatsoever and just went with his recommendation. He wasn't wrong - it is impossible to fault at any level: Acting, dialogue, costumes, locations, soundtrack, scenery, settings or storyline.

Films like this don't come along too often - beautifully made in an almost understated way, it relates to no major event or cataclysm, it chronicles no turning-point in history and it poses no worrying conundrum for the future. It is simply a quietly-told story that will criss-cross between various points in time and take you deep into the characters' emotions and portray the effect that they have on their lives. When you have seen and come to understand the events that take place, by the time it concludes it will leave you feeling refreshed and perhaps a little better in touch with the emotions in your own life - just like good films should, but sadly, so rarely do...

Easily 9 out of 10 - If you watch this one, you will not regret the time spent.