The Hours

THE HOURS (12)

D: Stephen Daldry

Paramount/Miramax (Scott Rudin & Robert Fox)

US/UK 🇺🇸🇬🇧 2002

114 mins

Drama

W: David Hare [based on the novel by Michael Cunningham]

DP: Seamus McGarvey

Ed: Peter Boyle

Mus: Philip Glass

Nicole Kidman (Virginia Woolf), Julianne Moore (Laura Brown), Meryl Streep (Clarissa Vaughn), Ed Harris (Richard Brown), John C. Reilly (Dan Brown), Stephen Dillane (Leonard Woolf), Miranda Richardson (Vanessa Bell)

Nicole Kidman won an Oscar for her physical transformation, in which she wore a prosthetic nose to partially resemble the author, Virginia Woolf.

Based on the novel by Michael Cunningham, The Hours takes place over three separate periods of time, all of which are linked by the book Mrs. Dalloway, penned by Woolf in the 1920's.

The modern day story is probably the most affecting, with Meryl Streep playing an unhappy carer who feels she just can't do enough to make her AIDS-suffering patient, Richard Brown appreciate life as his Birthday approaches.

Julianne Moore plays the lead in the 1950's segment, an unsatisfied housewife who wants away after a spot of cake-baking for her husband's birthday, and it's this segment I personally would have liked to have seen a little more of, since its tie-in to the modern day story is far stronger.

Personally, I really didn't care for the 1920's scene with Nicole Kidman as Woolf, a moody writer who really doesn't want to live in Richmond (I have no idea why, Richmond is a lovely area).

This was a film I put off watching for a while, and it's a film I really wanted to enjoy, but I just didn't. Perhaps it's because I probably would have been more interested in the separate stories individually rather than as a collective, and though I can appreciate the performances and general standard of filmmaking, I just didn't engage with the story.

Maybe it's because I haven't read Mrs. Dalloway, or maybe it's just a matter of personal taste.

6/10