Directed by:
Stephen DaldryCinematography:
Seamus McGarveyComposer:
Philip GlassCast:
Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Stephen Dillane, Miranda Richardson, Sophie Wyburd, Lyndsey Marshal, Linda Bassett, Christian Coulson (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
THE HOURS tells the story of three very different individuals who share the feeling that they have been living their lives for someone else. Virginia Woolf (Kidman) lives in a suburb of London in the 1920's as she struggles to begin writing her first great novel, Mrs. Dalloway, while also attempting to overcome the mental illness that threatens to engulf her. Laura Brown (Moore), a young wife and mother in post-World War II Los Angeles, is just starting to read Mrs. Dalloway, and is so deeply affected by it that she begins to question the life she has chosen for herself. Then, in contemporary New York City, Clarissa Vaughan (Streep) is a modern-day mirror image of Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway as she plans what may be the final party for her friend and former lover, Richard (Harris), who is dying of AIDS. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (9)
An existential examination of the female mind in a state of uncertainty, doubt and dissatisfaction. A haunting subject filmed by a man better than a woman ever could. I couldn’t identify with the suffering characters in every moment, but I could see myself in ninety percent of the runtime. Stephen Daldry pulled off a miracle. With another viewing, I will probably raise my rating to five stars. It’s impossible to take it all in the first time.
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The Hours is a classic film about which you can’t form a clear opinion during a single watch. Not only because the film is divided in a postmodern way into three time-spaces, connected both motivically and through characters. From this perspective, this is one of those simpler jigsaw puzzles, the principle of which you can unveil very easily, because Stephen Daldry's goal is not to confuse the viewer... In the first space-time, Virginia Woolf experiences a difficult struggle with illness and misunderstanding (phenomenal performance by Nicole Kidman!). Her novel Mrs Dalloway grows out of feelings of misunderstanding, loneliness and uprooting. This book was read in the 1950s by Laura Brown (the fragile and closed-off Julianne Moore), a mother living in the illusion of a happy family but struggling inside with similar feelings of misunderstanding as Virginia. In 2001, Clarissa Vaughan (suggestively played by Meryl Streep) gets the name of the heroine of the novel half jokingly... it's probably not worth emphasizing that she too struggles with life disillusionment, misfortune and the fateful man she loves, who threw her away long ago... All of the protagonists are connected by Woolf's novel, a similar emotional state and lesbian tendencies. All of this is intertwined in a difficult complex of relationships and emotions, and they go through a painful catharsis during a single "film" day. On one fateful day, the three levels of the story intertwine into a relatively coherent film ensemble, which at first lacks gradation and drowns in big words (the intellectual patheticity still holds on to it at a tolerable level), but at crucial moments it always has a great emotional charge and the gift to grab on to the viewer and make us think. A bit of an obstacle for me is the gender filter in seeing men as a) submissive and effeminate intellectuals (Leonard Woolf), b) wrecked and aimlessly wandering artists (Richard Brown), c) dull and inattentive domestic animals (Richie Brown). Despite the partial antipathies, however, I admit that The Hours has great inner strength and considerable stylistic maturity. Thanks to which, and also thanks to the sensitive directing and excellent music of Philip Glass, they amount to a great spectator experience...
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One of the most complex, emotionally powerful and engaging dramas under the baton of the master of the genre Stephen Daldry (The Reader). The great cinematic atmosphere is the result of the interpenetration between the three time dimensions, which was handled absolutely wonderfully and I didn't get lost in the film at all. The beautiful musical score and the great period rendition characterizing the time dimensions added to the overall impression, which was convincing. Such a gem with a great cast is not born every year and deserves both thumbs up.
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If it weren't for Philip Glass's music, The Hours would have been at least half as good. But despite that, we are left with an incredible tour de force of acting from three actresses and one actor. It is a quite depressing experience to see all the heroines sail through a very sad day: sometimes incomparably so, sometimes completely the same. Above all, absolute concentration is a must, otherwise many might find the motivations of the heroines ridiculous and their reactions hysterical. On top of that, there should be a warning to cynics on the cover. At first, I had my reservations, big or small, but the gradual crescendo is breathtaking and leaves no room for doubt. With the twist, or the devastating final monologue, a very unique and oppressive impression remains in your heart. With distance, however, I sobered up a bit and made my rating slightly lower. The crescendo, despite its first-class ending, stutters slightly in some places, and as a whole, the film is perhaps a little elusive. Nevertheless, significantly positive impressions, not to mention my favorite of the fateful trio: Nicole Kidman.
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The way the three stories are intertwined here is truly unique, not only in terms of content but also in the actual integration of the individual plotlines. Formally and in terms of acting, I found the film very appealing. However, I can't help but feel that, in the end, the film didn't really tell me that much.
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