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THE
HOURS
Virginia
Woolf is writing the novel. Laura Brown is reading the novel. Clarissa
Vaughn is living a life similar to Mrs. Dalloway's in the novel.
The movie shows a day in each of these women's lives just as the
novel covers a single day in Mrs. Dalloway's life.
Review by Darrel Manson
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CREDITS
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Directed
by Stephen Daldry
Novel
by Michael Cunningham
Screenplay by David Hare
Nicole Kidman .... Virginia Woolf
Julianne Moore .... Laura Brown
Meryl Streep .... Clarissa Vaughan
Stephen Dillane .... Leonard Woolf
Miranda Richardson .... Vanessa Bell
Charley Ramm .... Julian Bell
rest of cast listed alphabetically
Eileen Atkins .... Barbara at the Flower Shop
Linda Bassett .... Nelly Boxall
Daniel Brocklebank .... Rodney
Toni Collette .... Kitty
Christian Coulson .... Ralph Partridge
Michael Culkin .... Doctor
Claire Danes .... Julia Vaughan
Jeff Daniels .... Louis Waters
Carmen De Lavallade .... Clarissa's Neighbor
Ed Harris .... Richard Brown
Allison Janney .... Sally Lester
Margo Martindale .... Mrs. Latch
John C. Reilly .... Dan Brown
Jack Rovello .... Ritchie
Colin Stinton .... Hotel Clerk
Kate Super .... Young Clarissa Vaughn
Produced
by
Robert Fox .... producer
Mark Huffam .... executive producer
Ian MacNeil .... associate producer
Scott Rudin .... producer
Marieke Spencer .... associate producer
Original Music by Philip Glass
Cinematography by Seamus McGarvey
Film Editing by Peter Boyle
Casting by Patsy Pollock and Daniel Swee
Production Design by Maria Djurkovic
Art Direction by, Nick Palmer, Mark Raggett and Judy Rhee
Set Decoration by Philippa Hart, Barbara Peterson, Harriet Zucker
Costume Design by Ann Roth
MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements, some disturbing
images and brief language.
Runtime: 114 min
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM,
and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG
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TRAILERS
AND CLIPS
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CD
SOUNDTRACK
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 The
Hours (Score)
Philip Glass
How better to score a movie that takes place in three tangentially
related time periods than with music that strives for timelessness?
The hallmarks of Philip Glass's minimalism serve The Hours well. The
film, based on Michael Cunningham's novel, tells the stories of three
women--Virginia Woolf in the early 1920s, a housewife just after World
War II, and a book editor in the present--whose days relate in different
ways to Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway. Yet rather than construct a sonic
montage of these three time periods (perhaps some Ravel for Woolf,
some Max Steiner for the housewife, some Enya for the editor), Hours
producer Scott Rudin turned to Glass, a contemporary-classical composer
who has had a substantial side career in film, most notably with Koyaanisqatsi.
The familiar Glass sounds--the endlessly layered violins, the static
melodies, the glacial rhythms--all lend a consistent aural foundation
to a story that moves fluidly back and forth in time. The music is
scored for orchestra, string quartet, and piano. Those plentiful strings
lend a thick cushion, a triumph of tonal suspension, for the piano
part, which Michael Riesman plays coolly, emphasizing what are often
single notes separated by thoughtful silences, as well as short sets
of scales cascading in slow motion. Not only will these compositional
themes be familiar to fans of Glass's work, so too will several of
the melodies. Some sections of the score are derived from his albums
Glassworks and Solo Piano and from his opera Satyagraha--which, incidentally,
involved the stories of three legendary men active in different eras.
--Marc Weidenbaum.
Album Description
The superb orchestral music for this powerfully affecting film is
by Philip Glass, whose spellbinding 1999 score for Martin Scorcese's
Kundun (also on Nonesuch) added an aura of portent and sweep that
contributed significantly to the film's impact. The film stars Meryl
Streep, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman & Ed Harris. Slipcase. 2002
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POSTER
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The Hours
27 in x 40 in
Original Poster plain, or
Framed | Mounted |
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BOOK
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 The
Hours
by Michael Cunningham
The Hours is both an homage to Virginia Woolf and very much its own
creature. Even as Michael Cunningham brings his literary idol back
to life, he intertwines her story with those of two more contemporary
women. One gray suburban London morning in 1923, Woolf awakens from
a dream that will soon lead to Mrs. Dalloway. In the present, on a
beautiful June day in Greenwich Village, 52-year-old Clarissa Vaughan
is planning a party for her oldest love, a poet dying of AIDS. And
in Los Angeles in 1949, Laura Brown, pregnant and unsettled, does
her best to prepare for her husband's birthday, but can't seem to
stop reading Woolf. These women's lives are linked both by the 1925
novel and by the few precious moments of possibility each keeps returning
to. Clarissa is to eventually realize:
There's just this for consolation: an hour here or there when
our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open
and give us everything we've ever imagined.... Still, we cherish
the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more.
As Cunningham moves between the three women, his transitions are
seamless. One early chapter ends with Woolf picking up her pen and
composing her first sentence, "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy
the flowers herself." The next begins with Laura rejoicing over
that line and the fictional universe she is about to enter. Clarissa's
day, on the other hand, is a mirror of Mrs. Dalloway's--with, however,
an appropriate degree of modern beveling as Cunningham updates and
elaborates his source of inspiration. Clarissa knows that her desire
to give her friend the perfect party may seem trivial to many. Yet
it seems better to her than shutting down in the face of disaster
and despair. Like its literary inspiration, The Hours is a hymn
to consciousness and the beauties and losses it perceives. It is
also a reminder that, as Cunningham again and again makes us realize,
art belongs to far more than just "the world of objects." --Kerry
Fried
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AVAILABILITY
ON VIDEO AND DVD
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SYNOPSIS
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 The
period drama "The Hours" simultaneously follows the stories
of three different women in three different time periods. One revolves
around the depressed Virginia Woolf battling the onset of depression
while writing the novel Mrs. Dalloway. The other two stories detail
a housewife in L.A during the year 1949 and a present day woman throwing
a party for a friend with AIDS. The story is based on the Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel by Michael Cunningham, which was written in high
praise of Woolf's famous novel, Mrs. Dalloway. |
REVIEW
by
DARREL MANSON
Pastor,
Artesia Christian Church, Artesia, CA
http://netministries.org/see/churches/ch01198
Darrel
has an incredible love and interest in the cinematic arts.
His reviews usually include independent and significantly important
film.
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 The
Hours is a dark depiction of desperation and depression. Three women
in different times and places each struggle against the internal or
external expectations that get in the way of their happiness.
The stories are united by the novel, Mrs. Dalloway. Virginia Woolf
is writing the novel. Laura Brown is reading the novel. Clarissa Vaughn
is living a life similar to Mrs. Dalloway's in the novel. The movie
shows a day in each of these women's lives just as the novel covers
a single day in Mrs. Dalloway's life.
I haven't read Mrs. Dalloway or any other works by Virginia Woolf.
When I came out of the movie, I felt as though I were missing important
information necessary to truly appreciate the film. I doubt that most
viewers will have read Mrs. Dalloway. This is going to be a serious
drawback in understanding the film fully. I do like films that treat
the audience as intelligent, but here it treats something as general
knowledge that really isn't.
 However,
the performances are sterling. Meryl Streep, Julianna Moore, Nicole
Kidman and Ed Harris combine to make this one of the best ensemble
casts of the year. Each has her own demon to battle with. All are
trying to cope with the trials or disappointments that have come into
their lives. They each find different methods, whether creativity,
or running, or death, or denial. As we watch, we are inclined to pity
them, but also to judge them for the choices they make.
SPOILER FOLLOWS!
 One
of the most moving scenes is one depicting Laura Brown in later life
in a monologue about having abandoned her children. She sees it as
a choice between life and death. She knows there should be remorse,
and seems to wish that she could regret her choices, but cannot, even
after all these years and the death of her son. In that speech, we
are drawn to try to understand the suffocation that she felt as a
wife and mother, but it is very hard to forgive the devastation this
brought to those in her life.
 The
title "The Hours" actually has a dual meaning. It can be,
as Richard, who is dying of AIDS, speaks of them: the unending time
that must be endured. As we see the hours endured by all the characters
in this story we understand the weight that those hours can represent.
It can also be, as we hear in Virginia Woolf's suicide note, the time
that can be cherished and remembered.
 We
all have both kinds of hours. The characters in this story are controlled
by the hours of endurance and depression. And we see the danger of
destruction that these hours can bring. That the movie ends with the
comment about the hours that should be cherished is a small ray of
hope, but somewhat ambivalent as we watch Woolf wading into the river
to her death. |
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PHOTOS
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2002 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
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