Rating: 
Summary: An Elegant Tapestry
Review: I went into the theatre without a great deal of enthusiasm, expecting three remarkable divas to do a great deal of talking elliptically with many pregnant pauses accompanied by meaningful staring into space. It is fair to say I am not imbued with delight at Virginia Woolf's style of writing. I am happy to have to discard my unkind premonitions and admit a delight and awe for "The Hours." It is a visual treat from the beautiful English countryside to the lush palms of 50's suburban L.A. to Clarissa's funky brownstone in 2001 New York City. And the ladies! Nicole Kidman's slat thin, gawky strained and repressed Virginia Woolf, Julianne Moore's tragically unhappy but luminescent Laura Brown, and Meryl Streep's teetering on the edge of despair, Clarissa. All three were magnificent, and it is difficult to choose among them. Ms. Moore's tremendous restraint gave a powerful, suffocating tension to her role that overwhelmed me with its brilliance. My companion thought Ms. Streep was radiant. But I certainly wouldn't want to slight Ms. Kidman who said so little, but showed so much. Her scene with her servant (who clearly intimidated her) insisting that she must purchase ginger for treats was masterful comedy. She was trying to be firm while almost fainting with revulsion at the sight of the servant carving raw meat in her kitchen. The supporting cast were each a star in their own right, they were so perfect in their roles. I couldn't help but smile at the thought of how much Ed Harris must have enjoyed the all-out bombastic role of Richard, the poet dying of AIDS. I hope the costumier, Ann Roth, is awarded her Oscar for the beautiful authenticity of the attire. She even remembered that silk hose, lovely as they are, DO tend to wrinkle. The score, while charming, got a bit intrusive at times. There was a moment or two when I felt a strong desire to say, "Live for the moment! See the sun, your child, and your lover right now and rejoice--your life is not that bad" but I was quickly swept back up (or down) into the magic.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: Kidman, Moore, and Streep give tour de force performances!!
Review: To me, the premise of "The Hours" was a little intimidating to me before I finally managed to see the film: Three women are linked through three time periods to Virginia Woolf's novel 'Mrs. Dalloway'. I was concerned that my blazing ignorance to Ms. Woolf's work, and this one in particular, would hinder my enjoyment of the film and my ability to understand it. Not so. Yes, 'Mrs. Dalloway' was at the root of the three stories presented, but everything you need to know is in the film. This is it, basically: Mrs. Dalloway decides one morning -- the morning of a party she is throwing -- that she will buy the flowers herself. Though she projects the appearance of togetherness and cheer, she is a lonely, empty woman inside. Oh, and someone dies at the end. That's it. In "The Hours", we meet three women. First is Virginia herself (Nicole Kidman), and our introduction comes in the form of her 1941 suicide at the age of 59. A feminist Ophelia, she places a stone in her dress pocket, walks to a nearby stream, and lets it carry her away. Her brief, mortal stroll is voiced-over by her suicide letter, which explains to her husband that this act of desperation is to spare him the madness she feels is returning. The rest of her story takes place in 1923 as 'Mrs. Dalloway' is working its way out of her. Flashing forward to 1951, we see Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), depressed housewife of WWII veteran Dan (John C. Reilly) and mother of a young son. It's Dan's birthday, and Laura, in the middle of reading 'Mrs. Dalloway', decides that she will feel better today and bake a cake. Cut to 2001, and publisher Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep) is preparing a reception for author and friend (and long-ago lover) Richard (Ed Harris). Richard has just won a prestigious poetry award but is too ill from AIDS and related dementia to want to go to the party. Each of these women are depressed. Each awakes and acquires flowers. Each has something special going on that day -- a party of sorts. Each of these women kisses another woman. They all face suicide, and they all face the choice between death and the imprisonment of life. They each make a choice. The variations on these choices, while sometimes disorienting, are exactingly faithful to each other. Sometimes they reveal themselves suddenly, consecutively. Other times they surface gradually, inconspicuously. Like Philip Glass' subtle, driving score, they build gracefully from a whisper into a cry and by film's end find themselves whispering again. "The Hours" is a miracle of a movie. Literate, involving, active -- it is that rare film about women and their unique experiences that neither excludes nor condemns the role of men in their lives. The men of "The Hours", Woolf' stoic and supportive husband (Stephen Dillane), Brown's husband and son, poet Richard, and his former lover Louis (Jeff Daniels) -- the sexual politics of the film are sometimes scattered but fascinating -- are innocent bystanders who, while making decisions to maintain or find their own happiness, neither victims nor devalue these unhappy women. Their depressions are unto themselves, and their lives entrap them in ways that their respective others cannot assist or understand. All of the performances in "The Hours" are excellent, uniquely extraordinary, and utterly unforgettable. Ms. Kidman, unrecognizable behind a prosthetic nose, does more refined work here than I have ever seen from her. Her Woolf is depressed but never pitiful and always strong whatever the hardship. Ms. Moore, playing a very different '50s housewife from her "Far From Heaven" turn, gets it just right. In the midst of true depression, something as simple as baking a cake becomes an overwhelming, impossible task. Moore's battle with the cake is heartbreakingly sorrowful when she fails, yet somehow sadder when she gets it right. Ms. Streep, meanwhile, shows us again why she is Streep -- equally profound unraveling before the party and, in a devastating scene at the end, as she just listens to a voice from the past that puts things into perspective. Sad, but never far from hope, "The Hours" not only also has an outstanding supporting cast (including Claire Danes, Allison Janney, Miranda Richardson) and superb direction from Stephen Daldry ("Billy Elliot"), it is also one of the finest films of 2003 and of recent memory. A great DVD must-own for any Nicole Kidman fan, any Julianne Moore fan, or even any Meryl Streep fan!
Rating:
Summary: The Hours: Utterly Magnificent
Review: 'The Hours' is not a film for anyone seeking to spend a few cushy, relaxed hours at the movie theater. It is also not a movie for those unprepared to deal with mature subjects, like death, suicide, depression, sexuality, child abandonment and spiritual suffocation. 'The Hours' is a grim film, there can be no doubt about that, but it is also a celebration of life and love and the endless pursuit of happiness. How we spend the hours of our days, how we live what we choose to live, how we deal with the same issues in different times, these are the issues this film explores. To say that the performances are magnificent is to say that Picasso was a good painter. Every last performance in the film is more extraordinary, more luminous, and more phenomenal than the other. Meryl Streep is devastatingly brilliant as Clarissa, the modern day woman who unravels as she lives the life of someone who has it all. Julianne Moore is outstanding as Laura Brown, a 1950s housewife suffering a spiritual death from which there seems to be no escape. As for Nicole Kidman, it is unlikely that she shall ever again equal her performance as Virginia Woolf. She is, quite simply, stunning in her portrayal. Never does one consciously reiterate that it is her on screen, so deftly has she adapted the skin of one of the most brilliantly tragic figures in literary history. Still, she has a lot of work ahead of her--and by that I mean she had better start clearing off those shelves, because the awards are going to pour in. And how.
Rating: 
Summary: Three Frustrated Lesbians
Review: The Best Movie of the Year. Not! It was a short story. Short movie, too. Less than 2 hours. Almost titled The Hour. Ed Harris gave the best performance. Julianne and Meryl stayed in their skin. Nicole concealed her beauty and was totally Virginia Woolf. Don't think carrying only a third of the movie deserves a best actress award. Supporting would be better for the role. Should have shown Virginia in her crazed state. Also loved the emotion emitted by the little boy who played Richard Brown. Movie did not depict Laura Brown as such a monster. She only did what some fathers do everyday. Did Sally work the night shift somewhere? She came off the street in the morning and crawled in bed with Clarissa. The relationship she and Clarissa had together was vague. We only know Clarissa loved Richard when she was 18 but was jilted when he fell in love with a man. Clarissa settled for Sally? Clarissa had a daughter by a man she didn't know. Was the father a sperm donor or a one night stand? We know Clarissa loves her daughter and that happiness is a present moment only.
The movie let me down.
Rating: 
Summary: A dark and depressing film.
Review: The underlying theme of this film seems to be one should live, and end, one's life as one wants to, no matter what the consequences for others. The film concerns three unstable women whose lives are intertwined through Virginia Woolf's novel, "Mrs. Dalloway." There is no real plot and I could not sympathize with any of the main characters. The only character I could sypathize with was Kitty whose life was being taken out of her hands. Also, I didn't think it was possible for Julianna Moore to look unattractive, but this film managed it. I do not understand why this film has received rave reviews. For anyone who wants to see it, I recommend waiting to rent the DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: "The Hours": Too Much Time On Its Hands
Review: Like many film fans, I eagerly awaited this much-heralded movie. This much must be said about "The Hours" - the performances are excellent. Kidman, Streep and Moore do not disappoint - nor does Ed Harris in his portrayal of the film's most underdeveloped character. The problem lies in the script: "The Hours" is the cinematic equivalent of a barium enema: It's overblown, bloated, vastly uncomfortable, embarrassing, pretentious, and ultimately unconvincing. We never learn the reasons for the protaganists' overwhelming anguish, and for characters who suffer so intensely, that's an appalling deficit. For example, Moore's brilliant portrayal of a 1950s housewife with an inner angst so pervasive it very nearly leads to destruction is, in the end, frustrating and disjointed. Her character's connection to Streep's modern-day caretaker is meant to be cathartic, but it's just another laxative in a film that doesn't need any more artificial balms. Sadly, I left the theatre with the same feeling I endured in 1984 after the barium treatment: I'd had enough bombast for one day - and then some. I felt as if I'd been put through the sensory wringer - to no discernible purpose. If this is the filmmakers' idea of restoring my fading youth, they didn't pull it off with any surety. Fake noses notwithstanding, "The Hours" doesn't ring true any more than Kurt Cobain's tepid, recently-published diaries, and is, in the end, unsympathetic.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, very faithful adaptation of the book.
Review: A film that manages to be faithful to a seemingly impossible-to-adapt book, "The Hours" features three of the best working actress in three different, haunting roles, but the film itself deals with how meaning, passion and happiness can be found in the moments of life moreso than in its overall fabric. Nicole Kidman's work as Virginia Woolf is showy, devastating, romantic and remarkable, but it's Julianne Moore's take on a housewife's day of depression and disappointment that struck me the most.
Rating:
Summary: It is what is not being said...wonderful film!
Review: Hours is about the profound affect that Virginia Woolf's book 'Mrs. Dalloway' has on herself, a reader, and someone who knows the reader. This is depicted through three different periods over an 80 year stretch. The first period takes place when Virginia (Nicole Kidman) is writing the book while going through a tough time in her life. Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) represents the second period. She is the reader of the book who can identify with the main character in the book. The present time, and the third period, is embodied through Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep) who has received the nickname Mrs. Dalloway from someone who has read the book. The cast of Hours enhances it's monumental film experience by using deep rooted dialogues tangled with periods of silence.
Rating:
Summary: Hours spent making choices in a search for love
Review: Three women. Three different time periods. Three different situations. But yet, in some way, all are linked to the Virginia Woolf novel, "Mrs. Dalloway". Each woman wakes up one morning with the anticipation of some sort of party. There's Virginia Woolf herself in 1923, whose creativity as well as mental illness is apparent. She's frustrated at her forced seclusion from the London she loves and is making time for her sister's visit. There's Clarissa Vaughn, a middle-aged New York woman who is having a party for a good friend and former lover who is dying of AIDS. And there's Julianne Moore as Laura Brown, a 1951 housewife who is planning on baking a cake for her husband's birthday. Michael Cunningham linked all this together in the small masterpiece of a novel. And the screenwriter, David Hare did nothing less than a brilliant job in adapting it to the screen. I just finished reading the book and so I was particularly sensitive to the small changes, such as eliminating some of the minor characters. But the rather introspective and sad tone of the book is still there. And the characters spring to life in the kind of performances that will surely garner them all academy award nominations. Nicole Kidman is cast as Virginia Woolf. I was surprised at that because I think of her as a glamour queen. However, for this role she wears a prosthetic nose, and her makeup gives her a sallow appearance. She comes across as dowdy and homely and slightly insane. And her acting is so good that I thought I was seeing the actual Virginia Woolf on the screen. Meryl Streep is Clarissa Vaughn. She's living with her own set of life regrets. There's sadness beneath her veneer of the perfect hostess planning a party, and it's not a surprise when she lets it come out. And then there is Julianne Moore cast as Laura Brown, all alone in her despondency even though she seems to have a perfect life. Ed Harris is cast as the AIDS patient who is also going mad. They, and the rest of the cast are some of the best actors in the business, and it really shows. The cinematography and sets are also outstanding and the shifts between the three stories are seamless. There will be a gesture in one scene that is picked up in the next and this kind of overlapping editing keeps the story flowing. There's a theme of suicide throughout. And bisexuality. Mostly, though its about the our need for love and the choices we make about how to spend our hours. Much of the story is painful. But yet, its theme is universal. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Only One Hour
Review: Only One Hour was all I could handle before I decided "this just isn't going to get any better," and headed for the lobby.
I admire all of the the actresses here. They have each been in an excellent role recently. Further, I admire Virginia Woolf, one of the pioneers of Modern literary technique. But this grumpy film about three women who are unhappy for some inexplicable reason, surrounded by their sad friends, un-understood by servants and loving husbands, relatives, children, inflicted needless cruelty on its viewers. Yes, I get the idea that they are repressed lesbians, and they may want to commit suicide over something which seems trivial to others, but did they have to be so unrelievedly grim about it? A magnificent wallow in self-involvement. Let young people see this film only as a punishment for truly bad behavior.
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