The Hours

The Hours
by Stephen Daldry

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DVD details

Actor: Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Miranda Richardson, Nicole Kidman, Stephen Dillane
Director: Stephen Daldry
Brand: Paramount
Producer: Ian MacNeil
Producer: Marieke Spencer
Producer: Mark Huffam
Producer: Michael Alden
Producer: Robert Fox
Writer: David Hare
Writer: Michael Cunningham
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 114 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-06-24
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount

DVD Reviews of The Hours

DVD Review: 3 stars out of 4
Summary: 3 Stars

The Bottom Line:

The Hours was pure Oscar bait--a prestigey adaptation of an intellectual novel (see The English Patient for another) with Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep for God's sake--but beneath its pretty shell the film is pretty empty; by no means a bad film, it's a decent drama that benefited from a good marketing campaign and December release.

DVD Review: The Hours of Our Lives
Summary: 5 Stars

"The Hours" is a quiet, meditative piece about what makes life worth living. It unites the stories of three women- Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman), struggling with suicidal thoughts, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), expecting a child and struggling with her desires, and Clarissa (Meryl Streep), who's watching her ex-husband die from AIDS. The trio of women share a self-destructive streak. Ironically, and powerfully, the movie is about living life.

Virginia dotes on her husband, Leonard, yet she feels passionately for other women. She authored "Orlando" in honor of her onetime lover Vita Sackville-West. She is writing "Mrs. Dalloway." In the '50s, Laura is expecting a child with her boring but gentle husband (a brilliant, understated John C. Reilly) However, it is her bosomy neighbor (Toni Collette) who awakens her conflicted desires. Laura considers suicide. Realizing the unborn life within her, and reading "Mrs. Dalloway", she chooses life. In 2001, Clarissa is caring for her ex-husband, who's suffering from AIDS (Ed Harris) She cannot understand his profound pain. Though he has a boyfriend (Jeff Daniels,in a surprisingly good turn) and she has a girlfriend (Alison Janney),they still have a spousal bond. He calls her "Mrs. Dalloway." The underlying mystery is--what links the three women?

"The Hours" seems to glorify suicide, from Kidman drowning herself to Harris hurtling himself off a window ledge. However, it is Laura's choice for life that gives the story's three threads their essential link. Life makes connectedness possible. The hypnotic music from Philip Glass is excellent. Moore, Kidman, Streep, and Harris give luminous performances.

"The Hours" is a contemplative masterpiece.

DVD Review: SIMPLY AMAZING
Summary: 4 Stars

"The Hours" is a beautifully crafted, thought-provoking, brilliantly acted movie. Superlatives fail to describe this film. It is a movie about the lives of 3 women, their depression, their choices.

Nicole Kidman is convincing as the silently tortured bi-polar Virginia Wolfe who desperately wants to be normal for the sake of everyone around her, but because of her untreated illness, cannot. Juliann Moore is the most heart-wrenching as the mother who desperately wants to be a good mother and wife but because she is so emotionally dettached and unfulfilled in those roles, she cannot. Merle Streep is the lesbian who plays nurse-maid to her male ex-lover now dying of AIDS. She wants to rescue him. She cannot.

Three actresses playing the roles of three women who are unsuccessfully playing roles and whose characters ultimately fail miserably. Their lives are poignant: brutally so.

The poet/author, Virginia Wolfe, devoid of all hope that she can ever overcome her violent mood swings and exhausted from trying, wades into the river and drowns herself. This is the only way she believes she can save(or free) herself and those she loves. Juliann Moore's character commits the unthinkable act of abandoning her young son who worships her. In her mind she is saving (or freeing) herself and those she loves. Merle Streep's character assumes the ever-busy role of "Mrs. Dalloway" (the character from Virginia Wolfe's famous novel). She desperately attempts to distract her dying ex-lover who tragically wants to die more than anything because he never could get over the crippling truth that the mother he worshipped abandoned him.

Three hurting women, much loved, who abandon those who love them. This is a sad movie. It is not a movie made for entertainment as much for philosophical value. It is deep and thought provoking. If you are not accustomed to such films or have an aversion to same, this movie is not for you. As for me, I believe this movie is one of the greatest of all time. I highly recommend it to anyone who is not above soul-searching and exploring the depths of the female psyche.

DVD Review: Depressing
Summary: 2 Stars

I bought The Hours for cheap, so I was impressed, and for once, ended up watching it within a couple of days of buying - not something I do often, judging by my "to watch" pile!

I always watch the trailers first on the DVD, if they're available. Some people disagree with this. Personally, I like doing it. Plus, I like watching the "coming soon" trailers too - it always gives me an idea as to what DVDs to add to my wishlist etc.

I watched The Hours with my Dad, and actually had to WAKE him up at the end - now he never falls asleep at movies. I do. What is The Hours about? Three women, with very little lives, and feeling trapped at every turn. Yes, there are also women kissing in this movie, for the guys - and girls I guess.

I didn't identify with any of the women, I found the film quite dull, and uninteresting. It had so much promise. And I couldn't handle watching Ed Harris in his role - normally I love him too!

I wouldn't recommend this movie - maybe it's because I haven't read the book, I don't know. I'd be interested in reading the book, perhaps, but I still have quite a few books on my "to read" list. (Stop buying books and DVDs!) I'll still keep the DVD - after all it was only cheap, and if I ever read the book, I might give it another try again.

DVD Review: The hours....
Summary: 1 Stars

What an awful, awful movie! Flitting through 3 lives, we discover 3 miserable people. No reason for this movie but to waste an hour and a half. The potential of these actors together would have been awesome but they were wasted on a trash movie.

Description of The Hours

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.

Delicate and hypnotic, The Hours interweaves three stories with remarkable skill: in the 1920s Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) grapples with her inner demons and slowly works on her novel Mrs. Dalloway; in 1949 housewife Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) feels her own destructive impulses; and in 1999 book editor Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep)--much like the title character of Woolf's novel--prepares to throw a party, in honor of her dearest friend, a seriously ill poet (Ed Harris). Small details reverberate from story to story as a powerhouse cast (including Allison Janney, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Jeff Daniels, John C. Reilly, Stephen Dillane, and Miranda Richardson) gives subtle and beautifully modulated performances. In the hands of director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot), The Hours is almost more a piece of music than a story, and like music, it may move you in unexpected ways. --Bret Fetzer

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