Rating: 
Summary: amazing actors, wonderfull movie...
Review: It's really a pleasure to see all these great actos together in one movie. Spephen Daldry's "The Hors", about three women in different times is a beautiful masterpiece. Virginia Woolf (performed by Nicole Kidman) is in the 1920s writing her book "Mrs. Dalloway" (near of London), Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) is reading it in 1954 (in L.A.), and Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep) is living the Mrs. Dalloway's life in the today-New York. This three women have the same character: They're living a life they don't want to live. The film received 9 Oscar-Nominations, also for the best director - Daldry -, the best script - David Hare adapted very well Michael Cunningham's book "The Hours", and the best Film. It WAS one of the best films in 2003, maybe the best, with "Far From Heaven" and "Chicago" and "The Pianist". And the film with the most best actors: Nicole Kidman received an Oscar for her Virginia Woolf-playing, she makes herself little and small and ugly and you almoust forget it's Kidman who's there on the scope (perhaps also because of her wrong nose??).
Meryl Streep is laudable and brillant as Clarissa, there are small moments where you know she is a really great actress. For example the scene in the kitchen when Jeff Daniels is standing there and she beginns to crie, when she reallizes she is living a wrong life. Than you can see what's a real high-acting-level.
But actually the attraction, the best actress of the movie is Julianne Moore. Her performance is outsanding, and it's just not understandable why she didn't received an Oscar and just a nomination. With "Far From Heaven" and "The Hours" it's clear that she is one of the best actresses in our time. Maybe THE BEST. You can't describe her wonderfull acting... A great actor-ensemble (also in supporting roles included Oscar-nominated Ed Harris - grand as ill poet and Clarissa's friend -, Toni Collete, John C. Reilly, Eelien Atkins, Miranda Richardson, Claire Danes, and many others) in an unforgettable film-event.
Virginia Woolf would be proud.
Rating: 
Summary: Hypnotic!!!!
Review: "The Hours" is a study (a brilliant one, let me add) of three women's lives (The writer Virginia Woolf, the urbane Vaughn, and the suburban wife Laura Brown)- their daily frustrations, their wants and needs that can't be earned no matter how one tries so hard. (Melo-dramatic, is it not? quite soap-operatic?) Ed Harris's Richard is the ultimate modern-day tragic hero. Here he portrayed a character that is a source of pain, only pain, a Virginia Woolf re-incarnation of some sort. But Richard's pain, as the movie reminds us, is not one brought by his ... illness but by the past, brought by rejection and how this rejection shattered the life of a supposedly brilliant man. The actor's portrayal of a highly important character is sensitive enough to earn him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Kidman's portrayal of the writer Virginia Woolf really is inspiring and realistic. Her projection of the character's (Woolf) sense of loss and emotional emptiness is there, and, rejecting the comments of harsh critics, her adaptation of a brilliant but demented person truly is magnificent. Streep also carried the film and has once again proven that she is one actress of versatility. Julianne Moore is brilliant as (1) a bored but determined young wife, and (2) as the estranged mother. But it was Toni Collette who almost stole the film with her incredible but brief powerful appearance. This is one actress that, given the right opportunity, will truly amaze the audience. In a way, THE HOURS, is a meditation of the past, a rememory, a re-living. This is a movie of superior craftmanship, one that is delicate and innovative
Rating:
Summary: One of the most enchanting movies of the year
Review: The movie about the story of Virginia Woolf and perhaps her most famous novel, Mrs Dalloway, that fascinated Julianne Moore is captivating. Moore lives a depressing life with a devoted husband but has no zest in her life and feels one with the heroine in the book upto a point. Meryl Streep is superb in the role as a real life Mrs Dalloway. Though the movie may seem a trifle slow at times, it moves from past to present often enough and has a wholesome imagery. The relationship between Mr and Mrs Woolf is brought out very well and has a husband-wife and a father-child combination. Though this movie will not appeal to all and sundry, it is breathtaking in its beauty of bringing out human relationships and their complications without overdoing the acting. Kudos to the director, Stephan Daldry for the job he did in this. It beats previous movies about Virginia Woolf and her novels easily. All of the main actors did a splendid job, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore especially. For people who wrote bad reviews, I read through some of them and felt that a majority of them are used to fast paced movies. This is a different class of movie, I would advice them to go back and relook at some of the pieces of the movie, it will grow upon them. Some special scenes include the place where Virginia tries to go back to London as she is sick of Richmond and how her husband gives in. The relationship between them is unusual, one that is rarely seen in a movie of the present day.
Rating:
Summary: Lives of quiet desperation......................
Review: This film proves that people on the whole lead lives of quiet desperation..........
Kidman, Streep, and Moore provide us with fine performances, but the most sympathetic is perhaps the portrayl of Virginia by Kidman. She manages to reflect her deep depression yet at the same time her amazing sense of dedication to writing irregardless of how much it has ravaged her mind.
The music score is reflective of the desperation of all three lives.
I wish Hollywood made more like it.
Rating:
Summary: The most beautiful movie i've ever seen.
Review: "The Hours" is without question the most beautiful movie I've ever seen. The combination of 3 different women gathered together because of a book is amazing.
The acting was wonderful. Meryl Streep played her character so good, with so much feeling. And I most say I was amazed to see all the other actors act great as well.
This movie is a piece of art.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: I just saw this movie recently and I thought it was amazing. It has changed my life. One must look beyond the surface to understand this piece of art. Also, look out for patterns and the use of color. Like Woolf's works, this film is full of amazing imagery and deep, resonate power. This is a film to be enjoyed by yourself, though. It will have greater meaning to you if you watch it silently.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated Sobfest
Review: I can't understand why people raved about it. It is full of neurotic people, self-centered, solipsistic characters who take themselves so seriously and with such verbosity against a background of plaintive music that you're grateful when someone finally succeeds at dying. The movie is very good at evoking the sense of
claustrophobia that the characters feel, but the characters are not themselves interesting enough to justify the overwrought emotions this movie tries to stampede over us. Interesting narrative structure, interweaving
three separate stories, two of which mirror events in Woolf's book Mrs. Dalloway, and a surprise ending. Still,
a disappointment and hardly deserving of the raves it got.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best movies ever made
Review: I still can't get over the fact that this is getting such low reviews on this site. Chicago should not have one the Best Picture Oscar. Either this or TE Pianist should have. The acting in this movie was amazing and The plot was brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, absolutely beautiful...
Review: I've read and analyzed both Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" and Michael Cunningham's book, "The Hours" and this film brings Cunningham's book to the screen in a way that is both INCREDIBLY accurate to the text (something to marvel at nowadays) and allows for fresh perspectives for those who have already read it. With a soundtrack by Phillip Glass (whom I normally don't like) that provides the emotion, this film cannot be beat.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as the book
Review: While this is based on my favorite book, I hated it so much that I could not even finish watching it. The book is largely internal monologue, which does not transfer to the screen. Also, the book is more character driven than plot driven, which really does not transfer well to the screen.
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