Maybe my expectations for 'The Hours' were too high. With a star-studded cast and dozens of award nominations, I was convinced that this film would be a masterpiece and that I would love it. When it finally arrived at my local multi-plex, I was so eager to see 'The Hours' that I trekked downtown in a blizzard to go see it. 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 to do so much that it ended up doing nothing.
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 rather die than live in the suburbs.
Next chronologically is Laura Brown (Julianne Moore)who has a young son and lives in a cookie-cutter neighbourhood in Los Angeles. Her husband Dan (John C. Reilly in a repeat of his role of unloved husband from 'Chicago' and 'The Good Girl') loves her dearly, but Laura is unhappy with her bland suburban life. I thought that this plot was the weakest of the three because it's been shown many times on screen lately that life in the '50s was stifling and bland.
Meryl Streep plays Clarissa Vaughn, a modern Manhattan resident who is planning a dinner party for her friend Richard (Ed Harris), a writer who is dying of AIDS. Clarissa (her name is in reference to the main character in Woolf's 'Mrs Dalloway') lives with Sally (Allison Janney), but their relationship seems to be unraveling. I would have liked to know more about this couple, but, of course this plot is overlooked.
'The Hours' is fragmented and comes off like a series of Oscar clips. One of my movie pet peeves is unrealistic dialog and ridiculously long monologues. Melodrama and the suspension of disbelief is fine in stylized films like 'Far From Heaven' and 'Chicago', but it seemed to me that director Stephen Daldry meant 'The Hours' to be true-to-life, which it certainly wasn't.
For one thing, the children in this film are ridiculous in that they ask extremely insightful questions at all the right moments. One theme of 'The Hours' is that women can relate to each other through children. Laura's neighbor Kitty (Toni Collette) confides in Laura that she feels as if she is less of a woman because she is unable to conceive. Laura, on the other hand, seems to lack the mothering gene and doesn't appreciate her adorable son. Her first attempt at baking a birthday cake for Dan fails miserably. 'She must be a failure as a woman if she can't bake,' Hollywood seems to imply. In an emotional scene in Laura's kitchen, Kitty confesses how worried she is about her impending uterine surgery, but this plot is dropped entirely.
This leads me to my main criticism of this film. They took three fascinating stories and showed only the boring parts of them on screen! Clarissa reminisces with Richard about their fantastic summers on the beach, and I would have liked to see this aspect of the film portrayed on screen. Instead, we are treated to minutes and minutes of cross-cutting of women cooking, buying flowers, reading, writing, driving, etc. Luckily for everyone, there were no other people in the cinema when we went because we eventually started yelling at the screen in frustration.
This movie also features some of the most over-the-top symbolism since that scene with the raven in The 'Shawshank Redemption'. Injured birds and depressed women? Eggs as a sign of fertility? Water as a source of life and death? How novel! I felt like the filmmakers were being condescending in assuming that I couldn't pick up on more subtle symbols.
The pace of 'The Hours' is devastatingly slow. Cross-cutting among the three eras to show that the women's lives share many similarities is effective in the opening scenes involving purchasing and arranging flowers. However, this technique gets boring and repetitive very soon.
Most importantly, this film simply didn't move me. I sat down in my seat and prepared myself to be engrossed in an emotional journey, but it never happened. From an objective perspective, the three stories in this film are sad. But the mark of a good film (or song, for that matter) is if it can change my mood. I left the cinema with the same worldview and state of mind as when I bought my ticket.
Someone once told me that depression is 'anger without enthusiasm.' With that in mind, this film is an accurate portrayal of depression in three women, but it could have been executed in a much more entertaining, interesting and effective fashion.
-- Footnote: Thanks to the Rolling Stones' "Mother's Little Helper" for inspiring my title.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
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i'm sorry that you didn't enjoy this film, which is to me, my favourite movie of all time. however your review is very well written.
eve6kicksass 28.01.2004 10:47
I had very mixed feelings about the film...I liked the Actors, and I thought their performances was great...particularly Nicole Kidman, who deserved the Oscar, but I thought the film was disjointed and fragmented, like you said..Still, I didn't find it boring...Great op once again...Chris xxx
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