Details
Movie Description
Based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Michael Cunningham, THE HOURS employs Virginia Woolf's classic novel and central character, MRS. DALLOWAY, as its foundation and inspiration. Spanning three different eras, during one day, the film focuses on the parallel lives of three women joined in their depression, alienation, and search for love. Nicole Kidman, wearing a prosthetic nose, is virtually unrecognizable as the tortured writer Virginia Woolf whose ongoing battle with mental illness eventually led to her tragic suicide in 1941. The film begins with the moment of her suicide and flashes back on her life and work as she crafted her most memorable character, Clarissa Dalloway, in 1923. In 1950's California suburbia another woman, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), struggles with alienation and depression. Trapped by her clinging young son and an adoring husband whom she does not love, the desperate woman tries to prepare for her husband's birthday but cannot stop reading MRS. DALLOWAY. Finally, in modern day Manhattan, Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep), a lesbian who lives with her lover (Allison Janney) and her daughter (Claire Danes), struggles to prepare a party for her ex-husband (Ed Harris) who is dying of AIDS. Director Stephen Daltry uses beautiful overlapping editing to sew the women's interwoven stories seamlessly together. At the core of this profoundly moving film is the trio of award-winning actresses who grace the screen with their bold and awe-inspiring performances.
Film Notes
Theatrical Release: DECEMBER 27, 2002 (NY/LA)
Industry Reviews
"...THE HOURS is exquisitely written, graced with a gift for elusive emotions and an effortless ability to delineate lives....A splendid film..."
Los Angeles Times - p.C1 - Kenneth Turan (12/27/2002)
"...Eloquent, somber....Deeply moving....Magnificently written and acted..."
New York Times - p.E1 - Stephen Holden (12/27/2002)
"...Richly layered, deliberately paced, dealing with difficult emotions and life decisions, it feels like a moody wintry afternoon....The film is a powerful adaptation of a complex work of fiction..."
USA Today - p.11D - Claudia Puig (12/27/2002)
"...A most engaging, moving and provocative film....Moore and Streep are impeccable....It's the sheer conviction and power of her performance that makes you forget it's Nicole Kidman, movie star, up there..."
Premiere - p.19 - Glenn Kenny (02/01/2003)
"...Kidman's acting is superlative, full of passion and feeling....These three unimprovable actresses make THE HOURS a thing of beauty..."
Rolling Stone - p.76 - Peter Travers (01/23/2003)
"...Bathe -- soak, more like -- in the voluptuous sadnesses of Mss. Woolf, Brown, and Vaughan, delineated with such refinement by Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep..."
Entertainment Weekly - p.52-3 - Lisa Schwarzbaum (01/17/2003)
"...The film deftly builds a sense of synchronicity and connectedness through parallel moments, gestures and plot points....THE HOURS is a beautiful meditation on the life force and redemptive power of literature..."
Box Office - p.60 - Sheri Linden (03/01/2003)
"...Daldry's sense of period is elegantly realised and his theatrical background ensures a quality of performance..."
Total Film - p.97 - Simon Crook (03/01/2003)
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