The Hours (2002)

Mrs. Dalloway said, she would buy the flowers, herself." Those are the first words of director, Stephen Daldry's new triumph, The Hours, adapted from Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize Winning Novel. In the wrong hands of acting and direction The Hours could easily be written off as a chick flick, downer. But with Daldry's subtle touch and the performances from three beautiful women, it's a compelling, mesmerizing drama.

I usually don't like to use the term "all-star" cast, because it's often over-used and not used appropriately, but in this case it fits. It has Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nichole Kidman. What else would you need? The story can be taken either complicated or simple. It's about the day author Virginia Woolf wrote her novel "Mrs. Dalloway" in which the title character experiences all the motions of happiness from breakfast, flower shopping, etc until she can no longer see the point of her life. The entire novel takes place in one day. However the film is about three different women, in three different time periods, in three different situations, all three putting someone else's life first, all three not living their life to fullest. All three women are Mrs. Dalloway (the character), but all in a different way.

The story is as followed. It's like a trilogy of short movies mashed into one.

In 1923, Virginia Woolf (Nichole Kidman) is living in the suburbs of England on the day she wrote her novel Mrs. Dalloway. She doesn't want to live in the suburbs, but her husband insists on it because of her mental illness.

In 1951 Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) is living Los Angeles, where her happy-go-lucky husband can't see she's depressed. However she is stuck taking care of their son, and a child on the way.

In 2001, Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep) is living in New York City with her lesbian partner, and taking care of her ex-lover dying of aids. The story won't tie up everything in a nice neat bow at the end, and anyone who tries to connect the dots would miss the point.

If anyone titled a film "Meryl Streep, Nichole Kidman, and Julianne Moore are the leads" I'd have my tickets ordered in a heart-beat. They are some of the greatest living veterans of their craft. All three actresses get their performances across. If there is a stand out in this exceptional cast would be Nichole Kidman. She's really been on a roll lately with this film and last year's Moulin Rouge, she's becoming the next big thing in Hollywood. She show's Woolf as a genius, not just a psycho path. Sure, Virginia Woolf was strange, but with Kidman's heavy performance it's a character we really care about as the credits roll. Julianne Moore shows us here she has an emotional range, and like Kidman makes her character likable. And Meryl Streep is her usual Oscar-Worthy self. One of the greatest cast in a motion picture of all-time.

The Hours isn't not only successful in the transition to the big screen, but also in what most films fall prey to: having an wide emotional range, and not over-using it. The emotion not only comes from the director or the actors , but by the cinematography, art direction, and the score. The cinematography captures all the elements of the of these three women's thoughts and feelings. A great deal of the story-telling is told through the actor's facial expressions, so the cinematography is very significant. The art direction defines the different time periods, leaving a treat for the eyes. The score becomes a character itself because how vapidly it can change, and you don't even notice. The score is very original.

The Hours can be called flawless. The reason I say "can", because it's a matter of opinion. There is only one aspect of the film that could be called a flaw. Meryl Streep's scenes can be a little too long. It depends on what kind of person you are. If you are impatient and like things to be short and sweet, then those people will call it flaw. But people who like average long films will find this no to be a flaw.

Overall this is a masterful, flawless piece of cinema with Oscar-worthy acting. The Best Picture of 2002; 10.