That was an excellent one.

A different way of telling a story

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

On the surface this is a masterful work of art, a cinematic achievement of excellence. The smooth cinematography stringed along by its music score is poetically and aesthetically excellent in its own right. The emotionally charged performances, the poetic dialogue, the enigmatic symbolism and the silky contrast between 3 women, 3 time periods, 3 lives stringed along so eloquently, makes this story so simple, yet so powerful. Underneath that beautiful surface, lies the perspective of death, and the meaning of life. The topic of lesbian love, AIDS, the love of literature and fated acts of lives connected. All of this takes places while the concepts of mental illness and physical ailments take place in the lives of 3 women connected by fate, love, despair, duty and death.To call this a film shortchanges the work of cinematic art and poetry in front of us. It is till date, the most brilliant and beautiful film I've seen, and although its theme is demure, its meaning is profound.Signaling one performance is a group of tour de forces is a tough challenge, but Nicole Kidman's Virginia Wolf would break any heart with her undeniable raw portrayal of sadness, loneliness and desperation. Final Grade, A+

Where do you start with a convoluted work like 'The Hours'?. The Novelist Michael Cunningham tends to infuse his own homosexual view of relationships into his characters and the reader. TIME magazine's Richard Schickel's perceptive review of this film version leans toward being the most accurate, he summed it up as being...'Agenda Driven'. David Hare's jigsaw like screenplay adaption makes excellent use of cinematic creativity to juxtapose the inter-related time shifts. It's via this technique we're best able to see director, writer and photographer working so perfectly together.David Hare is no stranger to the theme of suicide. His own written and directed (sadly, rarely screened) 1985 classic 'Whetherby' is testimony to his sensitivity and skill with this subject. As for the variety of interconnected characters, there's an uncomfortable ambiguity that tends to prevent the viewer fully connecting with them. Firstly, we have Julianne More's Laura as a classic example: What earlier goals had this woman set for her life before marriage?. She has what billions of less fortunate women the world over would gladly trade places for - a comfortable home, caring husband, an adoring 6 yr old son (marvelously played by young Jack Rovello), a daughter on the way, clothes, car and money to spend. The only suggestion the writers offer for her intense suicidal tendencies comes during a visit by Kitty (Toni Collette) her female neighbor - Laura plants a passionate kiss square on the mouth of this very surprised woman - could Laura have been a lesbian all along? - Kitty, who had just finished telling Laura that she feels like a failure because of her inability to conceive, then looks up all dewy eyed at Laura and says 'your such a warm woman'...surprise!, could it be that all these years Laura's neighbor may also have been a lesbian?. Perhaps we should look further.... A similar excuse is drawn up for Meryl Streep's Clarissa. She's in a lesbian partnership but cannot let go of strong feelings she holds for an old relationship she had with Richard (Richard is the homosexual son of our above mentioned Laura and she had abandoned him years earlier!). This brings to question some theories on same sex partnering...Is Richard really a homosexual or is he simply avoiding a serious relationship with Clarissa (the woman he constantly claims to love), could Richard's indecision be out of fear that Clarissa might also abandon him as his mother did?. Is Clarissa in fact a true biological lesbian?. None of these issues are convincingly made clear.How many may choose homosexual relationships, not for biological reasons, but from fear or misunderstandings?. These choices have the potential to introduce serious dilemmas as people mature into deeper understandings of themselves. Here, we witness their decisions bring deadly consequences for all involved. Even Richard's male lover admits to Clarissa that he never felt freer than the day he left him!. So, what does poor Richard get out of all this? - deadly AIDs and yet more suicide! What about the unfortunate Virginia Woolf? (well played by an unrecognizable Nicole Kidman). If we look back over Woolf's life, she has tragically admitted she and her sister were abused by their half brothers ~ She was totally devastated by the death of her parents and brother ~ She also had a lesbian dalliance that soon petered out ~ In the film, Virginia goes on to admit the only time she ever felt fulfilled and at her happiest - was in her relationship with her beloved husband. Yet again, the novelist rather bizarrely offers up suggestions that a lesbian relationship might still be her possible savior. Somehow this all has a tendency to look and feel like over simplistic agenda based reasoning than genuine relationship philosophy.With stylish direction by Stephen Daldry ~ marvelous editing by Peter Boyle (AKF '92's neglected 'Into the West') ~ dressed to the hilt with so many stunning performances (too difficult to say whose best) ~ then add Irish born director of photography Seamus McGarvey (known for the odd 'Harry Dean Stanton Partly Fiction') providing dazzling images ~ now wrap it all up in Philip Glass's haunting, insistently minimalist music score. What you have could be one of the most compelling movies you just may find all too difficult to watch again. The films surprising success could be attributed to all the above elements but, there have been many other powerful, introspectively themed movies that were unfairly neglected, why?. The Hours could prove rewarding for those who can take the depressing intensity....for others, the seconds, minutes and hours may seem more like weeks.

Honestly, there is no exclamatory phrase in the tool belt of even a happy-mouthed Guy Fieri that can do justice to how strictly enjoyable The Hours is, especially for it's subject matter. It's basically an infinite recursion of intertextual frame narratives that center on the novel Mrs. Dalloway, which I had not read, but am currently reading...because of this movie.The screenplay is tight, hyper-aware of what it is doing and does so without feeling cumbersome much of the time. There is a particularly perfect spot where Meryl Streep's character discusses 'prescience', which is really the theme of the whole movie, and maybe even of Mrs. Dalloway...more to come on that.Bonus points: Nicole Kidman is unrecognizable, and really ceases to be herself while assuming Virginia Woolf, Phil Glass NAILS it on a score that ebbs and flows with the film's surrendering subjects and there's even a gorgeous scene where a hotel room quickly becomes what may or may not be Julianne Moore's final self-inflicted watery grave.

It is not exactly a good film. or a masterpiece. or the perfect choice for Oscar. it is not only a remarkable adaptation. because the acting transforms all. the novel, the expectations, the respiration of Michael Cunningham lines, the rhythm, the details. three great actresses are masters of a subtle, impressive, complex transformation of a story who becomes almost magic. axis - a character who guides the life of each movement, who propose new manners to understand the life, who becomes a kind of spirit who has as guest each of the women looking her form of happiness. The Hours remains a revelation at each new view. and that fact is not surprising because it is more than an extraordinary film but a sort of mirror for his public. a film of delicate nuances. and one of refuges for rediscover the meanings of life.