The Hours (thing)

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Ed Harris, Allison Janney, John C. Reilly, Eileen Atkins, Stephen Dillane

I found this to be a movie about discovering the greatness of life through the brutality of death....spoilers probably await you, also.

If one knows anything about Virginia Woolf prior to seeing this movie, you're pretty much aware that the cinematic experience won’t be a non-stop barrel of laughs. The renowned, mentally disturbed writer had an uncanny knack for examining the beauty and most of all the infinite tragedy of human life – specifically for lives of women. It is Woolf’s own life story along with her written masterpieces that inspire this movie, The Hours, to remind viewers how horrid and beautiful life is all at once. Director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) unquestionably achieves this difficult quest.

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Michael Cunningham, The Hours is a story that looks to weave the lives of three women in different eras together, pointing out their stark similarities as each face the daunting task of trying to find what is right for them in this world. Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) somberly walks the grounds of a suffocating home, attempting to write her “Mrs. Dalloway” while being imprisoned by doctors. Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), a dutiful 50’s housewife with a young son and another baby on the way, struggles to keep her sanity while being confined in a setting she wants nothing of anymore. Finally, the modern day Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep) is suddenly is faced with the terrifying notion that she is not really living her own life, and hadn’t been for years. The focus is on one life-changing day, from beginning to end, in each woman’s life.

Kidman manages to do a spectacular job as the mordaciously gifted Woolf. With someone else's un-pert nose, dour mannerisms and a facial expression that could both wither and intrigue at the same time, the actress manages to eliminate visions of all of her former roles thick with glamour and liveliness- from “To Die For” to “Moulin Rouge.” The tragedy of the writer’s life is made real on the screen, for a viewer could see her mental strain in her attempts to socialize with the living people outside of her books, and understand her preoccupation with the inevitability of death for all living creatures. Woolf herself is the fulcrum of the film; her book “Mrs. Dalloway” is what Laura Brown is reading in the 50s, and Mrs. Dalloway is the nickname of Clarissa is modern day. The other two women are immensily impacted by the dead author, and Kidman gives Woolf a subtle strength that is undying even as she marches to her watery suicide.

Moore gives a fine performance as the housewife who has been a prisoner of society’s commands. It takes a bit of time to really understand how her character suffers, but Moore’s expressions of complete helplessness while trying to bake a cake are moving. As the character glances constantly at her little boy’s face for reactions, one can detect the underlying anger and confusion within her - the emotions begging to be let free as she labors to continue adorned in prim, fire opal necklaces and tightly cinched dresses. The tale of Mrs. Dalloway is the catalyst for her, and she carries the book along on an outing one day with a desire to release herself from her role as a cloned Donna Reed.

The character of Clarissa seems meant for Streep. The actress accesses her range of emotion to make the woman one of depth. Clarissa, who has spent a number of years nursing a close friend dying of AIDS, starts off her day making arrangements for a party (just like the fabled Mrs. Dalloway), but is forced to greatly examine herself following a traumatic event. One can more easily identify with Clarissa when Streep plays the woman as sweet and giving but denying herself, and her breakdown in a kitchen looks as real as it could possibly be.

The camera action practiced in the film does not draw attention to itself; the lense merely rests on the most important, sensitive moments in each scene. Every bit of intensity proved potent enough in the slow but steady plot rather than in drastic camera work.

To analyze the multitude of layers in a woman’s life during any moment in history, women who ferociously crave more meaning in their lives while so often being stifled by the world, was what Woolf was best at. She could show the passion of the woman’s soul in all its forms, then directly point out how death has a key part in the soul's journey. With the aid of her powerful tales this film manages to capture this delicate vision as well. What is most surprising, perhaps, is that despite all of the pain and sadness, one is not filled with despair at the end of the film, but rather an appreciation for life and all its flaws.

The overpowering hues of taupe and brown are primary in practically every scene, re-enforcing the blandness of unlived lives. A grave created for a dead female bird by Woolf and a little girl is ostensibly dismal, though the death does not truly feel like the end, but rather the beginning of the creature’s next step in nature’s magnificant cycle. This film skillfully indicates this slightly more positive view on death by centering on Woolf’s face, which appears fascinated and admiring instead of tearful. The director crafts other morbid scenes in the movie in a similar fashion, pointing out that traumacan be more than debilitating. It can motivate people to move on.

That is one of several reasons this movie is one of the best out in the past year.

Grade: A- Rated: PG-13 for language and adult themes