Rating: 
Summary: It may not be a popcorn movie, but its philosophy rings true
Review: "The Hours" is a psychologically haunting movie. Those seeking popcorn movies need not apply - this movie didn't need them to touch audiences nationwide.
Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and Julianne Moore all give killer performances, each seperately in her own time period [1923, 1951, and 2001] as well as a trio. Each actress has a certain finesse and strength that sets up the next scene for the next woman. Its a powerful combination, and I feel that if one of the three had been replaced with another actress, "The Hours" would not have birthed such a lovely picture.
It has to be said that Nicole Kidman went the most in depth for her role as Virgina Woolf. Its becoming well known that Kidman doesn't believe in doing things half way - drowning in the River Ouse, learning Virgina's handwriting and doing so with her right hand [she's left handed] seem to be just part of the job. She slips into Woolf's psyche and gives an outstanding performance - its not all the nose's doing either. That Oscar was well deserved - her Virginia was really the movie's lifeline.
Streep is, as usual, right on target in the role of Clarissa Dalloway, Woolf's living creation in 2001. Clarissa is trivial and happy-go-lucky, yes, but Meryl Streep manages to show Clarissa's insecurities and deep emotional attachment to her AIDS-stricken friend Richard, [played by Ed Harris. Can we say "dream cast"?]which is a high wire to walk on.
Moore is really exceptional as Laura Brown. I read the novel twice before the movie came out in theatres, and I was really curious to see if the quiet, emotionally unsatisfied Laura Brown would be the same on screen. My worst fear was that she would be given too many lines to compensate for the psychological musings that Michael Cunningham showcases beautifully in his book. Luckily, Julianne Moore stayed true to the way Laura was written, depending more on facial expressions and tone to portray the troubled 1950s housewife.
This movie is not for everyone. Watch it with someone who appreciates fine literature and equally fine performances. Otherwise it'll go unappreciated. The plot CAN be described as depressing, but there is much more depth than that, if you give it a chance.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-acted but hard to understand
Review: This movie has beautiful acting and cinematography but it is difficult to pick up the various threads and make sense of them, particularly if you are unfamiliar with the Virginia Wolfe novel, "Mrs. Dalloway". The movie centers around three women, Virginia Wolfe, played by a hard-to-recognize Nicole Kidman; an unhappy young housewife from the 50's, played by Julianne Moore; and a modern-day woman played by Meryl Streep. Their stories interweave with one another and there are common themes of mental illness, lesbianism and unhappy women with death wishes. Not exactly light entertainment! There were times when I wanted to tell the main characters to snap out of it and get on with life rather than wallow in the melancholy and self-pity which they display. This is a movie designed more for art than for entertainment, so be forewarned.
Rating: 
Summary: Feels like hours and hours
Review: After all the hype this movie received, I was really disappointed when I saw it. It tried to be profound and touching and fell short of that goal. The dialogue was cumbersome and wasn't profound as intended. I didn't feel like I got to know the characters and therefore couldn't relate to their pain. The whole movie was slow and tedious. The acting was wonderful but that didn't save the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Good Acting but Seemingly Selfish Lead Characters
Review: The Hours was an okay movie with outstanding performances, which I can say is the strongest attribute of this release. Kudos to Nicole Kidman for her Best Actress Oscar! The screenwriting, on the other hand, left this viewer feeling like someone who ate good side dishes but was never provided the main course.I agree that the director successfully interwove the lives of three women from dissimilar time periods to create three situationally identical stories in one feature. On the down side, watching The Hours had me observing predominant emotions whose origins were scantily put forth. For instance, Virginia Woolf was looking for new avenues of adventure and exploration; that's the easy part. Why she was driven to her points of despair I really could not determine. That is, were her depression and search for independence and, eventually, suicide, unfortunate byproducts of a woman who was living in the wrong place at the wrong time, or (and I don't mean to be ugly about this) were they the inevitable outcomes of someone who had too much time on her hands? Again, much attention was paid to the inner struggles, but the causes of them were not really put forth, because it was not revealed to what degree each character interacted with society. So you could not tell if their psychological adversities were struggles from without (Was society that bad for each?) or developments that came from within (changes that might come with age or declining health), or both. For those who may feel clueless after watching The Hours, it might be because the film, itself, was cueless.
Rating: 
Summary: 3 Wonderful Performances
Review: All of the women in this film give good performances. Nicole Kidman does a wonderful job playing a whacked out sheltered Virginia Woolf. My favorite performances where those by Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep. These two women seemed to outshine Nicole Kidman in this film. All three storylines were strong. I really think this is a chick flick, I liked it, my husband hated it.
Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Film About Living And Facing The Hours...Of Life
Review: Michael Cunningham's award winning novel, "The Hours," received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and was chosen as Best Book of 1998 by The New York Times. Because the book is so extraordinary, I was apprehensive about how the film, based on this complex novel, could possibly succeed. David Hare performed a miracle in writing this true and beautiful adaptation, in a manner faithful to the book, and also suited for the big screen. He captured everything, including the important literary allusions, with great sensitivity and fidelity. Stephen Daldry's direction encouraged the superb talents of his ensemble cast. Daldry has once again proven to be a master of his craft. The film is a richly told, often tragic story, of the interwoven lives of three women, from three different periods in time. The common thread is Virginia Woolfe's novel Mrs. Dalloway. Virginia Woolfe, brilliantly portrayed by Nicole Kidman, is living in isolation with her husband Leonard in 1923. Ms. Woolfe has a long history of mental illness, and has attempted suicide twice. Her doctors and her husband agree that she will possibly find peace away from London. The literary couple is living in Richmond, where Leonard has set up a printing press, thinking to involve his wife in publishing. She has begun to write "Mrs. Dalloway," the story of a day in the life of one woman, Clarissa Dalloway, "a woman's whole life in a single day - and in that day her whole life." Virginia is plainly fixated on death. She understands the nature of her illness, and at one point explains to Leonard that although he must live with the burden of her illness, so must she. She decides that someone in her new novel must die. When Richard asks who will die, and why, Virginia responds,"...the poet, the visionary will die, so that the others will value life more." Laura Brown, (Julianne Moore), is a young housewife, pregnant with her second child, in post-World War II, Los Angles. She is desperately unhappy in her marriage. Her husband, a war veteran, clearly worships her. Their young son, with a child's intense perception, senses the tension and unhappiness in his mother, that his father seems oblivious to. Laura begins reading Virginia Woolfe's Mrs. Dalloway, and is deeply affected by the novel. She begins to have doubts about her life choices, and despairs that suicide may be her only way out. Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep), lives in contemporary Manhattan, and is an editor and writer. She could be a mirror image of a modern Mrs. Dalloway. Her closest friend, and former lover, Richard, a novelist and poet, actually calls Clarissa, "Mrs. Dalloway." Like Woolfe's Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa is giving a party, for Richard, who is about to receive a prestigious lifetime achievement award for his poetry. She sets off one beautiful morning, like Mrs. Dalloway, to buy flowers for her party. Then she visits Richard, whom she has taken care of for years. He is slowly dying of AIDS. The intermingling of the three women's lives, and their struggle to find meaning, outside of brief moments of happiness, is very powerful. The visual montage of the three women, is superb and so effective. It is almost a collage at times. The musical score is haunting, and adds much to the film's mood. And the acting is superior, not just by the three women, but by the entire supporting cast. The tension builds toward a powerful ending, which even though I read the book, still came as a surprise. This is a deeply moving film, about living out the hours of ones life, about love, survival, and about mental illness and creativity. I highly recommended it!
Rating: 
Summary: The Hours
Review: this film was truly awful and a waste of my time...I thought there would be a deeper view of these women and their emotions in their time but the point was lost...took days to finally figure there was just no point to this movie..if you want to see these actresses kiss other women see it but if you are looking for some deep emotional drama that delves into the complexity of a woman don't bother seeing this.
Rating:
Summary: Hours (As in it took too many to watch.)
Review: First let it be known that yes the acting in this movie was superb for the most part. The acting was I believe, the greatest aspect of the movie. Nicole Kidman transcended the charater and life of Virginia Woolf and made us understand the dimented author in a new light that most are not familiar with. Julianne Moore as always, put on a fantastic performance. John c. Reiley as her loving yet clueless husband was played with subtlty and charm. Meryl Streep however was a shadow of her former self as she overacted herself out of an oscar nomination. (i.e. The kitchen scene with Jeff Daniels. What a mess!) So what of David Hare? As a writer he is a staple of the modern English theatre scene in London. And he did a fare job considering the hallow and souless subject matter that he had to deal with. The three time lines is a typical and often effective technique of the modern British theatre (I.E. Arcadia by Tom Stoppard.) however in this particular instance it fell short of it's potential. Not to mention the script was overly sensationalistic and self indulgent which is typical of the empty and shallow lives of Hollywood and American films in General. (Though an Englishman wrote the script, it is still an American Production.) As for the character development which is what the plot is based upon in this film, there was very little. (Which is why the director needed such good actors and actresses to pull it off.) In a good character based story the character arc or development should have some sort of journey. there should be ups, downs epiphanies and finally a change of sorts that is vastly different from how they started in the beginning of the story. Virginia Woolfe? She started deranged, frail, weak spirited, unappreciative, brilliant yet selfish, and by the scene in the train station all these just bubbled up to an even more ridiculous actualization of her shortcomings. The same is true for all of the characters except for maybe Ed Harris' character. Who finally realizes through the use of narcotics that suicide is the only escape from his pain and past. All in all this movie is a menagerie of quitters and self serving miscreants who make a commitment in life, back out and then selfishly expect those closest to them to pick up the pieces. It is no wonder Hollywood loves this movie. It does nothing more than reinforce the "Me first and it's someone else's fault" attitute that has destroyed american society.
Rating:
Summary: not for everyone
Review: A Film By Stephen Daldry The Hours is based on the Pulitzer Prize Winning novel by Michael Cunningham. The movie stars Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep. It was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and Nicole Kidman won for Best Actress. Also nominated were Julianne Moore and Ed Harris for their supporting roles. It was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. This is a film with a high class pedigree. This film follows three women in three different time periods. In the end, The Hours is really telling just one story and each of the time periods contributes to it. We have Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) in 1923 England, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) in 1951 California, and Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep) in 2001 New York. The film does not have a story so much as it deals with issues revolving around the lives of these women: depression, suicide, death, and family. The Hours does so in a way that is deeply personal but never pushes any viewpoint down the viewer's throat. Virginia Woolf is dealing with her personal issues of mental isolation as she writes Mrs. Dalloway. She deals with depression and a desire to die to silence the voices in her head. Laura Brown is a housewife who has to deal with a faltering relationship with her husband and she feels a kinship with the character of Mrs Dalloway in Woolf's novel (which she is reading). Clarissa Vaughn is living in New York City, and it seems that she is living the life of Mrs Dalloway. The movie features supporting performances by John C Reilly, Ed Harris, Claire Danes, Alison Janney, Miranda Richardson, Toni Collette, and Stephen Dillane. This is the type of film that is made for the Academy Awards but really only has a specialized audience outside the Award circuit. Critics love The Hours, but it is a slow moving drama and this will not appeal to everyone. It is extremely well done, make no mistake about that, but this is not the movie to go to if you are looking for escapism. This is the movie to go to when you are looking to think critically about the film and what it is saying about the human condition.
Rating:
Summary: 4.5 good movie but it lacked something
Review: Judging From The Critics Reviews I Expected A Little More Out Of This Movie. It Was Very Good But It Lacked Something. The Story And Acting Were Perfect But The Pacing Thats Another Story. It Went By Very Slow And Was Overly Dramatic. I Liked It Though And Would Reccomend It.
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