Starring: Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Toni Collette
Director: Stephen Daldry
Rated: M15+
THE Hours is made up of three stories which intersect to varying degrees.
The first story is set in 1923. Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) is 43 years of age. Her mental health has been deteriorating for some time. She is now suicidal.
Her only relief from her mental anguish is to write. She begins to pen her now famous novel, Mrs Dalloway, which chronicles a day in the life of an upper class snob who meticulously plans a party. In the course of the day, Mrs Dalloway realises how absurd her life has become and thinks about the moment when she felt most alive, when at 13 she stole a kiss from another girl.
In the second story, set in LA in 1953, Laura (Julianne Moore) realises that even though she has a devoted husband Dan (John C. Reilly) and a delightful son, Richie (Jack Rovello), she hates her suburban life.
To relieve her boredom she reads Mrs Dalloway and finds her experience described by Virginia Woolf. Never having felt alive in the way she reads about in the novel, she kisses her best friend Kitty (Toni Collette). Laura has to find a way out of her humdrum existence.
The third story is set in New York in 2001. The famous poet Richard Brown (Ed Harris) is awarded a prestigious national prize for his work. Brown is dying of HIV/AIDS.
His literary agent Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep) cares for his every need. Vaughn plans a dinner to follow the award ceremony and enlists her long-time partner Sally (Allison Janney) and daughter Julia (Claire Danes) to help with the preparations. Brown has other ideas.
Weaved through this narratively rich and complex film are two symbols and one theme. Flowers and eggs unite all the stories. The first is a sign of beauty that covers over mess and stench.
The second is about fragility and the ingredients that go to make up any life. The theme of death unites the stories into one – death of hopes and ideas, relationships and commitments and even the extinguishing of life itself. If it sounds like sombre subject matter it is, but it’s not just that. In Stephen Daldry’s hands The Hours is a beautifully realised look at three women who discover the mixture of desires they have in what appears to be an ordinary existence.
The acting from all players is exceptional, with only one gripe. Nicole Kidman’s portrayal of Virginia Woolf would have been even stronger still if she was able to perfect a more rounded upper class English accent. Toni Collette’s dramatic range is shown to great effect in the 10 minutes she is on the screen, and Ed Harris is among the best actors working in film today.
It’s good for viewers to know that The Hours has a homo-erotic theme, though this is not overplayed. Furthermore the apparent hopelessness of the plot gives way to a powerful and consoling conclusion. And though some men might consider this is a ‘woman’s film’, this judgment would be a mistake. It tells tough stories about some women’s experience of our shared human condition.
When Nicole Kidman won the Golden Globe for Best Actress for her role in The Hours, she implored screenwriters to develop projects that told women’s stories in an equally multi-layered and challenging way as this film does. Let’s hope her words are heeded.
