Rating: 
Summary: A looking glass
Review: The film provides a sort of haven. If you've ever felt, even to the smallest degree,that psychological sort of battle where you are lowered into a deep well of doubts, uncertainty, questions, depression and may not understand it, this film exposes these feelings, opening spreading light over them. It's a sort of bittersweet touch on reality; and for those who may have experienced any level of sadness or confusion, even just a hint or a moment when you feel "what does all this mean?", from the simple questions of life to the more serious, complex questions of life, the movie's ability to capture that part of one's conscience is simply a gift the artistic creators of this movie gives to the audience. Aside from the psychological contributions it makes to the society of women who desire understanding of themselves more, it is also just a beautifully made and brilliantly composed film.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Movie
Review: This movie was wonderful. For all you people that are saying that homosexuality is wrong, welcome to the real world.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional Fusion, Bravo!
Review: I am a Virginia Woolf devotee. Before the film started,I asked two unknown women if they were familiar with the Bloomsbury Circle or V.W.'s work? Their response, "No". My concerns: Necessary to be familiar with Virginia Woolf's work? Applicable coherency and flow for the different periods? I loved this film!! Intelligent,literate, realistic. The music was haunting, it evoked a roller coaster of emotions. My aforementioned concerns:the film was seamless as it traveled from woman to woman, generation to generation, WITHOUT! distraction or loss of coherency. Amazing work!At end of film, had brief chat with the same two women. They confirmed, that prior knowledge of V.W's work was not a prerequisite to understand and appreciate this sensitive, terrific, moving film. It brought me to tears.Something that has not occurred in too many years to recall. Thanks MAH,without you, this experience would not have been posssible.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent movie, but not a film for a sunny day
Review: "The Hours" is an excellent movie. The cinematograpy is breathtaking, and the acting phenominal. The film is loyal to both "Mrs. Dalloway", and "The Hours". What turns people off is the velvet curtain of depressing monologues and suicidal impulses that shrouds the film, slightly suffocating at times. The film is depressing, certainly, but a must see. The story is not a happy one, so if that's not what you're looking for, then viewing it is not the best idea. This movie feels; there isn't a whole lot of eye candy. However, the score is excellent as well, weepy and dramatic; it certainly adds to the film. I saw this film with my friends, and we discussed it over ice cream afterwards. I would recomend doing so, since it restores some of happiness lost.
Rating:
Summary: Hope and Tears in one movie
Review: The Hours of 3 women , in different times .
No Matter what era you live - the thoughts are the same.
A Powerful Cast in a story of barvery , happiness and the struggle in death. I found the movie a beautiful poem of life and hope , one that will keep you going through tough times. BRAVO!
Rating: 
Summary: Slightly Overrated...
Review: I am not going to waste time by expounding on the films narrative structure and characters. Judging from all the hype, reading this you should already be aware of the omnipresent plaudits and praise this film has generated. All you've heard is warranted, although I can't help feeling that there's and inherent smugness which underscores Daldry's adaptation of the pulitzer prize-winning novel. The high literary pretensions Daldry, Kidman, Streep and co. were aspiring to are blatantly bourgeois, and to the keen watcher and listener their beningnly flippant, aloof and ever-so-slightly-dismissive collective attitude towards the audience is more than a little irking. The film left me feeling curiously played by the proverbial puppet master, in this case the filmakers, having stoically expounded their relatively myopic, proto liberal feminist/lesbian rhetoric with maximum precision and clinical grace. Excellently made, but proceed gingerly.
Rating:
Summary: Pointless But Excellent
Review: This is a outstanding movie, good without hype but still outstanding!
The movie doesn't really have a point like someone who gave the movie 1 star said, pointless. I think, but, this movie shouldn't have a clear point, is better. I mean, what you feel after watching this movie is the point(so it's not pointless in such extent)! The movie is so rich of what life really means. To face, to regret, to avoid, even to die........the movie can either be positive or negative, depending on your thoughts. But this masterpiece must not be the worst movie.
I am not telling jokes, this movie is really a very much in-depth movie I have ever seen.
"Always the love, always the hours!"
Rating:
Summary: The BEST movie of 2002
Review: Without a doubt,this was the best drama of 2002. Provocative, emotional, and intelligent. The screenwriter took an incredible novel, and converted it into an incredible movie. From the opening scene to the too soon ending, I was mesmerized by the acting, and paralyzed by each spoken word. How seemlessly the director took three women's lives, from different periods of time, and tied them together via a Virginia Wolfe novel; "Mrs. Dalloway". Bravo to all involved with this project.
Rating: 
Summary: Who's afraid of Virginia Wolfe's ghost?
Review: This story follows the hours of a single day in the lives of three women in emotional turmoil. Based on the book by Michael Cunningham, this shows the consequences of parents' behavior in forming their child's future life. The music by Philip Glass set the mood beautifully. The similarities in these diverse lives of unconventional women skip from one instance to another sometimes for an interval of 78 years. We're shown the deliberate suicide by drowning of Virginia Wolfe in Sussex in 1941 after her mental suffering for more than eighteen years since she had walked away from the stifling country life in the suburbs of London. The clock at the colloquial train station (after all, it was 1923) showed the time as 5:20 when Leonard appeared from that beautiful English garden enclosed between tall brick walls, to suffer through ghosts of the past. The saddest thing is to see a man cry. 'Possessed' people act strangely. As V.W. explained, "even crazy people like to be asked." This movie used too many artificial flowers (in 1923 and 2001); you'd think some at least could have been real. At the bird's funeral, no rose petals could be strewn, only the complete bud because of the artificiality. Had the roses been real, the child could have scattered petals as my young son did when our beautiful cat, Ligeia, was killed. It was mentioned that "there's a time to die," and a child's sensitivities absorb the strange explanation of death. During her descent into a mental vacuum which culminated with her suicide in 1941, Virginia Wolfe wrote a novel, MRS. DALLOWAY. Ten years later, a very different life is being played out in L.A. Laura Brown's dead marriage is a sham, even with a young son who adores her. Her attempt at normality, as she is obsessed with the book MRS. DALLOWAY, is proof positive that marriage to the wrong person produces a wasted life for all involved. She checked into the lavish Normandy Hotel to die in splendor -- but, like a woman tends to do, changed her mind. Her mundane life was merely facing 'the hours.' In the modern version a variable is played out on the snowy streets of NY where the niece of Virginia Wolfe (at the bird burial) has to buy her own flowers (artificial) and plan a party for an ex-lover who is being presented with a literary award. Walking from the florist, she busily uses her cell phone, which I find our most disgusting modern rudeness to others. One summer ruined lives which were twisted but she had gone dutifully to his ugly loft apt. in a warehouse to tend to him throughout a terminal illness. He's called her 'Mrs. Dalloway' since that summer (because of her connection to its' author?) and included her in his book, which folks found hard to read. Yet, she lived in a spacious apartment and had another life for ten years. He could no longer face 'the hours,' said he'd changed his mind explaining, "I"ve stayed alive for you, but now you have to let me go." Thus, the party was turned into a wake at which his mother appears. She's a nice little old lady someone called a monster. For fifty years, she'd lived a quiet life as librarian in Canada after abandoning her family in L.A. She'd contemplated suicide to emulate her favorite writer, but the thought of future happiness kept her going. Instead, her grown-up son (sweet pea Richie) has thrown himself out of a window in despair. Death makes others value life more. She explained that there are times when you don't belong, you have no choice but to endure only what you can bear. "I chose life," she declared. Her ruinous son had told his 'lady friend' that we must look life in the face, know it for what it is, and then put it away. His final complaint, "It's always the hours." A scarecrow Ed Harris played the writer who changes things, makes them his own. Meryl Streep's eyes show her age; I kept wondering how she would look with grey hair. John C. Reilly was credible as the successful businessman in a two-car household of the fifties. Jeff Daniels portrayal of a gay from San Francisco who'd fallen in love with a student "for no reason" proves he is a versatile actor. The actress who elegantly brought to life the old Laura Brown was perfect for the part. Was that really Julianne Moore made up to look old? The antiquated typewriter in 1923 and all that chrome on the two-toned autos with white-walled tires added authenticity to a difficult subject.
Rating:
Summary: The Essence of Virginia Woolf
Review: Anyone who gives this movie a bad review is not introspective or mature enough to understand it. This is a complex, gut-wrenching look at the inner lives of three women. The character of Julianne Moore is the weak link. Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman recreate an intimate association between Virginia Woolf and her tragic heroine, "Mrs. Dalloway." Drama is comprised of moments of silence as well as action. When Kidman lays her head down on the ground to look into the eyes of a dead bird, one is overcome with a sense of the fraility of life; in this instance, both the bird's and Virginia Woolf's. This movie deserved more than one Academy Award. I recommend the book, "Mrs. Dalloway" for those who want an in-depth look at the soul of one of the greatest British authors of all time.
|
