The Hours

Stephen Daldry, USA, 2002, 114 minutes

Three women. They don't know each other but their fate is bounded with a thread of history and literature. They all have difficulties with existing in a society, facing the everyday responsibilities and their emotional life.

The first one is Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman), one of the most amazing characters in English literature, a lonely woman who lives in two parallel worlds - the real one and the one of her literary fiction, created in her own head. Many suicidal attempts resulted in her isolation from the world. She lives in the province, with her loving husband. The second character (Julianne Moore) is a depressed woman locked up in a model of a perfect American family from the 50's. The third character (Maryl Streep) is a lesbian, tired with life, in which she is occupied with her partner, house, daughter, work and an AIDS-sick childhood friend of whom she takes care.

The director, Stephen Daldry involves us in three stories shattered over the 20th and 21st century. They are tied together by the power of literate fiction and our imagination. It seems like Virginia Woolf while writing the book "Mrs. Dalloway" would decide about the life of the other characters - Julianne Moore as a reader and Meryl Streep, who seems to be Mrs. Dalloway herself. The complicated story, full of flashbacks and brilliant script gives the film an amazing atmosphere and shows the world of a writers mind and the magic of creation. Also great acting is another reason to see this film. All three actresses are brilliant. The Hours was nominated for 9 Academy Awards (Nicole Kidman won it for the best female role).

The Hours is definitely worth seeing. It is a well made film about a lonely struggle of three women for happiness, independence and individuality. It shows how desperately those women wanted to escape the cages of expectations and responsibilities in which they were locked up by the men who loved them.

Review by Jan Naszewski
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2005