I went in to "The Hours" expecting to be disapointed, I honestly couldn't see how anybody could adapt oneof may all time favorite books into a film without losing some or all of the emotional richness that makes the book so brilliant. Two hours later I came out of the movie theater stunned by what David Hare and Stephen Daldry had achieved in bringing the book to life, Hare had trimmed down the novel, losing some plots but never losing any of the emotional punch the book has and Stephen Daldry elictied career defining performances from the two greatest actresses working today, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore and also did a great job with Nicole Kidman whose perfomance I'm slightly less impressed by. Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep BECAME their characters, I felt I wasn't watching Moore and Streep play Laura Brown and Clarissa Vaughn respectivly, I felt I was watching Clarissa and Laura, the chracters I had imagined time and time again while reading the book, Nicole Kidman sadly didn't quite have the same effect although I feel that if so much media attention hadn't been focused on her "transformation" into Virgina Woolf I may have found it easier to feel the same way about her performance as I do Streep and Moore's. The supporting cast including Allison Janney, Claire Danes, Ed Harris, Jeff Daniels, Stephen Dillane, Miranda Richardson, Toni Collette and John C. Rielly all shine in their limited roles as well.
"The Hours" opens in 1942 England where Virgina Woolf (Kidman) exits her house, walks out of her garden, down to a river, weighs herself down with stones and walks into the river, drowning herself. The film then transfers to 2001 NYC where Clarissa Vaughn is going out to buy flowers for a party sheis holdiing, then back to 1923 England where Virgina Woolf is struggling to write the first lines of her book "Mrs. Dalloway" and Laura Brown wakes up in 1952 Los Angeles, torn between picking up her copy of "Mrs. Dalloway" and escaping into it's world or going and helping fix her son breakfast.
As their respective days progress Clarissa visits her friend Richard who is dying from AIDS and is mentally unstable because of the diseases effect on his brain, Richard whom calls Clarissa Mrs. Dalloway is the person Clarissa is throwing the party for, he has won a prize for his poetry, she must face the fact that she is losing the man she loves, who never loved her back, both Clarissa and Richard are gay, but had in their youth had an affiar and Clarissa has never been able to find love like that she has had with Richard. Laura struggles to live out a normal day, feeling trapped by her surroundings and her life, she wants to be the perfect wife and mother but finds herself overwhelmed by the simple task of baking a cake and after an experience with a female neighbour who is ill and in need of comfort during in which she kisses her, she finds herself leaving her young son Richie with a neighbour and going to a hotel room to escape, taking a jar of sleeping pills with her, because the simple task of living has her contemplating suicide. Virgina meanwhile is struggling with her recovery from a period of depression and trying to write a book under the watchful eye of her husband Leonard. She feels trapped in the small town of Richmond and longs for the excitement of London, she feels left out of life, especially after a visit from her sister and decides to go to London but gets no further than the train station before her husband catches up with her. Laura and Clarissa's stories colide into to each other but I'm not giving away how. "The Hours" is a brilliant film that deals with the themes of love, loss, life, sanity, madness, sexuality and above all survival, I think Ricard summed up the whole film perfectly with one simple quote: "But I still have to face the hours, don't I? I mean, the hours after the party, and the hours after that..." 10/10
"The Hours" opens in 1942 England where Virgina Woolf (Kidman) exits her house, walks out of her garden, down to a river, weighs herself down with stones and walks into the river, drowning herself. The film then transfers to 2001 NYC where Clarissa Vaughn is going out to buy flowers for a party sheis holdiing, then back to 1923 England where Virgina Woolf is struggling to write the first lines of her book "Mrs. Dalloway" and Laura Brown wakes up in 1952 Los Angeles, torn between picking up her copy of "Mrs. Dalloway" and escaping into it's world or going and helping fix her son breakfast.
As their respective days progress Clarissa visits her friend Richard who is dying from AIDS and is mentally unstable because of the diseases effect on his brain, Richard whom calls Clarissa Mrs. Dalloway is the person Clarissa is throwing the party for, he has won a prize for his poetry, she must face the fact that she is losing the man she loves, who never loved her back, both Clarissa and Richard are gay, but had in their youth had an affiar and Clarissa has never been able to find love like that she has had with Richard. Laura struggles to live out a normal day, feeling trapped by her surroundings and her life, she wants to be the perfect wife and mother but finds herself overwhelmed by the simple task of baking a cake and after an experience with a female neighbour who is ill and in need of comfort during in which she kisses her, she finds herself leaving her young son Richie with a neighbour and going to a hotel room to escape, taking a jar of sleeping pills with her, because the simple task of living has her contemplating suicide. Virgina meanwhile is struggling with her recovery from a period of depression and trying to write a book under the watchful eye of her husband Leonard. She feels trapped in the small town of Richmond and longs for the excitement of London, she feels left out of life, especially after a visit from her sister and decides to go to London but gets no further than the train station before her husband catches up with her. Laura and Clarissa's stories colide into to each other but I'm not giving away how. "The Hours" is a brilliant film that deals with the themes of love, loss, life, sanity, madness, sexuality and above all survival, I think Ricard summed up the whole film perfectly with one simple quote: "But I still have to face the hours, don't I? I mean, the hours after the party, and the hours after that..." 10/10
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