Production Year: 2002 - Drama - Director: Stephen Daldry - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Claire Danes, Ed Harris, Toni Collette, Jeff Daniels, Stephen Dillane, Alison Janney more
Based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Michael Cunningham, THE HOURS employs Virginia Woolf's classic novel and central character, MRS. DALLOWAY, as its foundation and... more
The Hours DVD
An adaptation of the novel by Michael Cunningham this is the story of three women living ... more
in different time periods of the Twentieth Century all linked by a work of literature. In 1923 Virginia Woolf starts to write her novel 'Mrs Dalloway' whilst stru...
The Hours
Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer and Pen/Faulkner prizes The Hours is a daring and deeply ... more
affecting novel inspired by the life and work of Virginia Woolf. A passionate profound and haunting story of love and inheritance hope and despair. Exiled in Richmond in the 1920s taken from her beloved Bloomsbury and lovingly watched over by her husband Leonard Virginia Woolf struggles to tame her rebellious mind and make a start on her new novel. In the brooding heat of 1940s Los Angeles a young wife and mother yearns to escape the claustrophobia of suburban domesticity and read her precious copy of Mrs Dalloway. And in New York in the 1990s Clarissa Vaughan steps out of her smart Greenwich Village apartment and goes shopping for flowers for the party she is giving in honour of her life-long friend Richard an award-winning poet whose mind and body are being ravaged by AIDS. These are the characters in Michael Cunningham's exquisite and deeply moving novel which takes Woolf's life and work as inspiration for a meditation on artistic behaviour failure love and madness.Moving effortlessy across the decades and between England and America Cunningham's elegant haunting prose explores the pain and trauma of creativity and the immutable relationship between writer and reader.
The Hours Movie Poster
Original UK Quad; Rolled Poster; Poster Condition: New; Size: 40 x 30 inches approx. All ... more
our items are despatched from the United Kingdom. Starring - Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Stephen Dillane, Miranda Richardson We offer *** WORLDWIDE *** Delivery!, Manufacturer: MoviePostersDirect
The Hours
A trio of the screen's best actresses - two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep (Best ... more
Actress, Sophie's Choice, 1982; Best Supporting Actress, Kramer Vs. Kramer, 1979), Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman (Best Actress, The Hours 2003) and Julianne Moore (Hannibal) - star as three women from different eras who are linked by their common yearnings and fears. Virginia Woolf (Kidman), in a suburb of London in the early 1920s, is battling insanity as she begins to write her first great novel, Mrs Dalloway. A wife and mother in post-World War II Los Angeles, Laura Brown (Moore) is reading Mrs Dalloway and finding it so revolutionary that she begins to consider making a devastating change in her life. Clarissa Vaughan (Streep), a present day version of Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, lives in New York City and is in love with a friend (Ed Harris - A Beautiful Mind) who is dying of AIDS. Also starring John C. Reilly (Gangs Of New York), Claire Danes (Brokendown Palace) and Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense) - their engaging stories intertwine until they come together in a surprising moment of shared recognition.
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, emphasising 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
The Hours - 1841150355
The Hoursis both a homage to Virginia Woolf and very much its own creature. Even as ... more
Michael Cunningham brings his literary idol back to life, he intertwines her story with those of two more contemporary women. One grey suburban London morning in 1923, Woolf awakens from a dream that will soon lead toMrs.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 an AIDS-related illness. 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 realise: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 bevelling 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 Hoursis a hymn to consciousness and the beauties and losses it perceives. It is also a reminder that, as Cunningham again and again makes us realise, art belongs to far more than just "the world of objects." --Kerry Fried
Drama - Director: Martin Scorsese, Dennis Hopper - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper
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Production Year: 1993 - Drama - Director: Steven Spielberg - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Embeth Davidtz, Ben Kingsley, Jonathan Sagalle
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
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A review by Mattroberts on The Hours (DVD) November 16th, 2003
Author's product rating:
Did you enjoy it?
Loved it
Story
Outstanding
Characters / Performances
Outstanding
Special Effects
Good
How does it compare to similar films?
Outstanding
Advantages:
Brilliant acting, plot, stuck to the book !
Disadvantages:
unexplained Lesbain feelings
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Having read the book, and it coming in my top two books of all time (just below Wuthering Heights), then reading the screenplay, and basically knowing where and when everything was going to happen, I was pretty certain that I wouldn’t enjoy The Hours, the film, as much as I would have if I didn’t know so much about it. But the greatness was something much more than the good acting, the clever story, or even the nice settings; the greatness was the way you understood three helpless women who either knew death, or wanted death. Three very similar ladies, who combined together, even though so different, are somewhat the same.
The rough plot is very simple and clever. Basically, the whole plot is set around three women in different decades of the 20th Century. One in the beginning, the other in the middle, and the final in the later years. The whole film is one day in each woman’s life. All three women have a likeness, and a link to each other. That link is carried throughout the film, and is basically the basis of it. Also, the different times are important in the film. The first two women seem way before they’re time, and the final woman seems to be in the right time, but she still remains unhappy. The film is stressing that happiness is rarely had.
The first woman is Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman), set in 1923 London. Woolf is the brilliant authoress of Mrs Dalloway, and the character in the film is based on the actual authoress. Woolf’s “day” is her writing one of her most famous novels – Mrs Dalloway. Woolf, who has just recentely suffered a nervous breakdown, and remains to hear “voices” every day, is thought of as mentally unstable by her husband, sister, and even her servants. Her day she plans out the novel in her head.
Almost 30 years later, in 1949 Los Angeles, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) is reading Mrs Dalloway in bed. It’s obvious she’s been crying. What becomes more obvious as the film goes on, is how similar, mentality wise, she is to Woolf. They are extremely similar in the way they both want to get out of their lives. Both feel trapped. Isolated. Both can’t stand the thought of staying in that inhabitant any longer, and if they do they would rather die. It’s that feeling that the women feel so trapped, and if they were in a different time, they’d be able to be happy. They’d be able to lead the life they wanted to.
The third, and final, woman is Clarissa Vaughn in 1999 New York. She’s caring for her dying poet friend. It’s as if she’s only living for him. Unlike the other two women who are desperate to get out, and would do anything to leave, she wants to leave, but feels an emotional responsibility to stay with him. To care for him. Although Clarissa is socially accepted, unlike the other two women, she remains to live a dreary life, fulfilled only by her dying friend, and busy schedule. To me, Clarissa’s story is the most tragic out of them all. Because instead of the strong attitude, emotionally and physically the other two women have, Clarissa totally lacks in it, and has no one to rely on.
Written down in words, the film sounds like an average Hollywood movie, and could even be a good read. Sadly it is impossible to explain the brilliance and poignancy of the whole film, the tone, the feeling, and the deepness that makes it that bit more special and touching than other films.
All three women, Woolf officially, suffers from some kind of mental illness. Or is it, maybe, that they were just all too intelligent to be able to be thought of as “normal”. “Normal” is a word that I can imagine each women hates. It’s “normal” to do this and that. It’s as if what’s “normal” makes the women unhappy. Everything they should be doing, they don’t want to do. Not out of choice, but because if they do carry on with the “normal” life they wouldn’t be happy with themselves. And what every woman has to realise is that happiness for you is important. Caring for others is not an individual’s job.
What I disliked about the film was the lesbian thoughts from each woman. Clarissa was an outed lesbian woman, which was obviously fine. But, Woolf, a married woman, kissed her sister, and Laura, also a wife, kissed one of her neighbours, Kitty. Whilst reading the book, I was intrigued to see why they did so, and if in actual fact, they were lesbians, and were just too scared. But, their feelings were never brought to head, and I never found out why it happened. I know, think, that maybe it was intended to show the likeness of the women, and maybe not the sexual love they wanted from the other women, but the emotional love they craved, that they received from no one.
The performances from each actresses was touching, and brilliantly done. Kidman won an Oscar for her role as Woolf, which was greatly deserved. She not only did the look, the accent, and the expression right, she also managed to make us think we were actually watching Mrs Woolf in action. Moore was very strong as Laura, the housewife. She was deep, and she acted with enthusiasm, which I love to see. Finally, Streep was as strong as per usual. There was no weak point from here, and I expected no less from such a talent.
There are so many more things to add, but I’ve decided not to, as I though it would ruin the whole film for you. Sit down in front of it, knowing what you know already, and you’ll appreciate it for what it is, trust me.
Not to read Mrs Dalloway after seeing the film would be an absolute crime, and I’d advice you to read it first, to understand, and appreciated it that bit more. There are so many things, in the film that you’ll understand that bit more, and appreciate that bit more, after reading the book. The title I lent from the first line in the book, and it’s referred to many times in the film, as are so many other things. The best film adapted from a book, ever, that poignantly touches you.
...I was disappointed, to say the least. I've been told by someone who read the book on which this film was based that the movie is a good complement to the book. Without having read the book (nor 'Mrs Dalloway' by Virginia Woolf, which is referenced many times throughout the film), I felt that 'The Hours' was incomplete and superficial. We are presented with three stories of three women, none of which are developed in a satisfactory manner. It tried ... ...The first woman is Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman, with a now-infamous fake nose) an actual British writer who suffered from depression throughout her life and committed suicide by drowning herself in a river. In the film, Virginia's husband Leonard seems very concerned for his wife's health. Leonard moves Virginia out of central London to suburban Richmond because he thinks it will improve her health. Virginia is miserable, however, and says she'd ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Something to think about, very intellectual and dramatic Disadvantages: might bore some viewers
...movie "The Hours" (which is the working title of Virginia Woolf's novel "Mrs. Dalloway") is an adaptation of the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Michael Cunningham. This movie revolves around the story of three depressed and alienated women living in different time periods of the Twentieth Century and searching for love. Yet all of them at some point are compelled towards committing suicide, their struggle of choosing between life and death. The ... ...Alison Janney
ABOUT THE MOVIE
This film features three women from three different time periods who face depression, dissatisfaction, and ultimately the option of suicide.
Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman)
I didn't recognize Nichole Kidman in this character; the work of artistic makeup have given her a completely new look. Well this character profiles a writer, mentally ill and chronically depressed, as she writes her novel Mrs. Dalloway in rural ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
The Hours
I simply loved this film, it's one of my most favourite movies ever! I've watched it repeatedly since its premiere I went to see to the cinema with my best friend. When we got out, we were both stunned and later she said she didn't know what was supposed to happen after the end of the film, whether we'd start kissing or if the world was just gonna end. I don't mean to be pathetic, but the emotional impression was really deep for ... ...happiness reads the subtitle. We'll come to find the obvious - there is no such a perfect life or happiness, since the life always has new quests to drag us through and it's up to us to find something that can make us happy for a while. Difficult as it is, we'll see it on three examples. Performance
I'm in love with Meryl Streep and even if this movie has brought another spoonful of fame particularly to Nicole Kidman (not only for her performance ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Three good actresses (though sadly wasted) Disadvantages: Pretentious garbage
...cutting-edge. 'The Hours', based on the novel by Michael Cunningham (which, I admit to you now, I haven't read), is not one of these films. Stephen Daldry's translation of the novel is a sprawling, unwatchable mess and a waste of three remarkably talented actresses. Perhaps I missed the point of the film, but quite simply this was the most boring, limp, lifeless film I have ever seen. You know the films where you say that they 'sent you to sleep', ... ...awful film, to reccommend to the delightful person behind the counter, always armed with a sunny smile and friendly disposition, that they offer 'The Hours' as a cure for insomnia. Those people that complain 'I can't get no sleep' will, within minutes of watching this tepid, dull film will soon find that they can doze off for hours on end. Even worse, I found the film to be truly insulting and patronising and by the end of the movie I felt like I ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Excellent acting with decent roles for actresses combined with an intriguing plot structure Disadvantages: A little ponderous at times
...that is more accomplished than the rest - regardless of Kidman being singled out by gaining a Best Actress Oscar. These are three fantastically detailed performances, from three obviously talented women that are only strengthened by a supporting cast that cannot be faulted.
Adapted from Michael Cunningham's book of the same name, 'The Hours' is set in three different eras, and charts a momentous day in the life of each of our three central characters. ... ...- whose simultaneous unravelling exposes the similarities in their lives. It is 1925 in England, and Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) believes she may have the first sentence for her fourth novel, 'Mrs Dalloway' (the inspiration for Cunningham's book). It is 1951 in Los Angeles and Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) is reading 'Mrs Dalloway', forcing her to confront her unhappiness as a suburban housewife through the baking of a cake for her husband's birthday. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Fantastic Documentary of 80's Music Scene Disadvantages: None
...TWENTY FOUR HOUR PARTY PEOPLE (SPECIAL EDITION 2-DISC SET includes over 8 hours of bonus material) - DVD Region 2 - £19.99
* Stars; Steve Coogan, Ralf little, Paddy Considine, and Peter Kay.
* Directed by: Michael Winterbottom
* Running Time: Approx. 112 Mins (Colour)
* Contains: Some very strong language, some moderate nudity (wahey!), mild but infrequent violence, and sight of hard drug use (not to be condoned ... nudity ok though!)
Wad's it awl abowt then?
Twenty Four Hour Party is an excellent British film that documents a seminal period in British popular music and culture, with a music scene that was born in Manchester, or Mad-Chester arrrr kid, as Oasis would later drawl.
Hailing from the North-West myself, more specifically Liverpool (Although, unfortunately I haven't lived there for over 10 years now), I...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Great chemistry between Chan and Tucker. Ridiculously entertaining. Disadvantages: About as substantial as...(Insert your own Chinese food joke here)
...quite intense and well choreographed, but seems very 'Jackie-Lite' to anyone who has seen Chan's Hong Kong offerings. Chan stumbles with his English, and Tucker is remarkably bearable, considering how unbearable he usually is! Tom Wilkinson crops up as one of the nominal bad guys, but no matter how much he scowls, he can't be taken seriously after 'The Full Monty'.
The DVD features your usual scene selection and out-takes. The forty minute 'Behind the Scenes' documentary is especially worthy of a viewing. 'Rush Hour' might seem to trivial a movie to warrant a behind the scenes documentary, but you'd be surprised. One benefit of this is it brings Brett Ratner, the director to the fore. You might expect a director of a straightforward action comedy to be just there to point the camera. But what comes across is Ratner's enthusiasm...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: sometimes amusing, packed with extras Disadvantages: not too original
...Rush Hour is one of those films that isn't very original. If it isn't done in the right way then it can end up as a very bad film. However with a few good elements it can be entertaining. Rush Hour is a mix of both. The film is made worthwhile by Jackie Chan's funny charm and very exciting martial arts scenes. However Chris Tucker is incredibly annoying and does the film no favours.
The plot involves some chinese gangland thing with some stolen art. But who cares about that when Chan is kicking, flipping and stripping people with a deft hand and foot. It's a case of removing the brain and not expecting much.
The film is produced by New Line Cinema and as dvd purists know this is the studio to beat when it comes to Region 1 dvd output.
Rush Hour is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The transfer is flawless with little...
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Plot: An adaptation of the novel by Michael Cunningham, this is the story of three women living in different time periods of the Twentieth Century all linked by a work of literature. In 1923 Virginia Woolf starts to write her novel 'Mrs Dalloway' whilst struggling to cope with depression and mental illness. In 1951 Laura Brown, a dissatisfied housewife contemplates her own life after reading 'Mrs Dalloway'. In 2000 editor, Clarissa Vaughan, struggles to look after her ex-lover, Richard Brown, who is losing his battle with Aids. Richard nicknames her 'Mrs Dalloway'.
Release details
DVD Region: DVD
Studio(s): WALT DISNEY STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINM; TECHNICOLOR DISTRIBUTION SERVICES
Special Features: Commentary - 1. David Hare - Screenwriter, 2. General Cast, Featurette - 1. THE MIND & TIMES OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, 2. THE LIVES OF MRS DALLOWAY, 3. FILMMAKERS' INTRODUCTION, 4. THREE WOMEN, 5. THE MUSIC OF THE HOURS by Philip Glass, Theatrical Trailer, Storyboards
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0
Dubbing Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 English Dolby Digital 2.0 Audio Described English
DVD Description
Based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Michael Cunningham, THE HOURS employs Virginia Woolf's classic novel and central character, MRS. DALLOWAY, as its foundation and inspiration. Spanning three different eras, during one day, the film focuses on the parallel lives of three women joined in their depression, alienation, and search for love. Nicole Kidman, wearing a prosthetic nose, is virtually unrecognizable as the tortured writer Virginia Woolf whose ongoing battle with mental illness eventually led to her tragic suicide in 1941. The film begins with the moment of her suicide and flashes back on her life and work as she crafted her most memorable character, Clarissa Dalloway, in 1923. In 1950's California suburbia another woman, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), struggles with alienation and depression. Trapped by her clinging young son and an adoring husband whom she does not love, the desperate woman tries to prepare for her husband's birthday but cannot stop reading MRS. DALLOWAY. Finally, in modern day Manhattan, Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep), a lesbian who lives with her lover (Allison Janney) and her daughter (Claire Danes), struggles to prepare a party for her ex-husband (Ed Harris) who is dying of AIDS. Director Stephen Daltry uses beautiful overlapping editing to sew the women's interwoven stories seamlessly together. At the core of this profoundly moving film is the trio of award-winning actresses who grace the screen with their bold and awe-inspiring performances.
Award information
BAFTA: Best Actress 2003 (Nicole Kidman)
OSCAR: Best Actress In A Leading Role 2003 (Nicole Kidman)
Professional reviews
Review: "...The film deftly builds a sense of synchronicity and connectedness through parallel moments, gestures and plot points....THE HOURS is a beautiful meditation on the life force and redemptive power of literature..." (Box Office, p.60, 01/03/2003)
"...Bathe -- soak, more like -- in the voluptuous sadnesses of Mss. Woolf, Brown, and Vaughan, delineated with such refinement by Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep..." (Entertainment Weekly, p.52-3, 17/01/2003)
"...THE HOURS is exquisitely written, graced with a gift for elusive emotions and an effortless ability to delineate lives....A splendid film..." (Los Angeles Times, p.C1, 27/12/2002)
"...Eloquent, somber....Deeply moving....Magnificently written and acted..." (New York Times, p.E1, 27/12/2002)
"...A most engaging, moving and provocative film....Moore and Streep are impeccable....It's the sheer conviction and power of her performance that makes you forget it's Nicole Kidman, movie star, up there..." (Premiere, p.19, 01/02/2003)
"...Kidman's acting is superlative, full of passion and feeling....These three unimprovable actresses make THE HOURS a thing of beauty..." (Rolling Stone, p.76, 23/01/2003)
"...Daldry's sense of period is elegantly realised and his theatrical background ensures a quality of performance..." (Total Film, p.97, 01/03/2003)
"...Richly layered, deliberately paced, dealing with difficult emotions and life decisions, it feels like a moody wintry afternoon....The film is a powerful adaptation of a complex work of fiction..." (USA Today, p.11D, 27/12/2002)
![The Hours [DVD] [2003]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78523499.jpg)
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