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The
Hours
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Plot Summary
The internal turmoil within three women's lives, separated
by time, is linked in this film through a book. First, Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman), tormented by social constraints and mental
disorders, is writing the book, "Mrs Dalloway", in the English
countryside in 1941. Later a pregnant mother, Laura Brown (Julianne
Moore), in stifling 1951 American suburbia, trying to suppress her own
desires, is reading the book. Later still in 2001, Clarissa Vaughan
(Meryl Streep), feeling that the best part of her life is over and feeling
that she is now compensating for this by caring for an old lover who has
AIDS and organising extravagant dinner parties, is living Mrs Dalloway's
life.
Review
Having managed to stay awake in a hot cinema during the
disappointing first stretch of this film, interest in the emotions and
situations of the characters does increase eventually. Dealing with
the unseen turbulent thoughts of the main characters is where the interest
rests and the characters are well portrayed. The script is good and
there is the occasional laugh to be had for those who are still
awake! However, this doesn't make up for the slow moving pace at the
beginning.
The themes deal with the thoughts and emotions of
intelligent women who are restrained by social values, their expected
social responsibilities and the expectations of how they should
behave. These women are faced with choosing between living life for
others, being despised for living their own life, and death. This
might be considered mainly a pre-feminist problem, but this film confirms
that society still inflicts old values on women today. Internal
feelings, such as doubt, loneliness, isolation, fear, suicide, lesbianism,
are shown in conflict with the expected social roles for women, such as
mothers, wives, homemakers and carers. "The hours" refers
to the time between events in our lives where we are by ourselves in our
head and we face the reality of our lives that may be in contrast to our
own desires.
Thinking about the ideas of the film and the way they were
presented after watching it is maybe more interesting than watching the
film itself.
Nicole Kidman (with false nose) is very good in the film
as is Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. There are also good
performances from Ed Harris, Stephen Dillane and Claire Danes.
Nicole Kidman received an Oscar for best actress but this could have been
partly due to the interesting person she plays or even the nose job!
The Bottom Line: This film is provocative and
deals with interesting issues but is too slow moving and takes far too
long to introduce the thoughts of the main characters.
Lasting thought: You cannot find peace by
avoiding life.
Reviewed by Niamh Fox,
Premier
Movie Reviews 2003
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