I watched Stephen Daldry’s the Hours recently, and finally. This movie was always referred to in my film classes, but I had never got to watch the entire movie. I once bought the DVD when it was just released. I let it run for 30 minutes before I stopped it because I could not bear the depression. Almost six years later, I sat through the movie. I enjoyed it, felt the atmosphere of it lingered around me a long time after it ended, and then I rated five stars on my Netflix account.
It was hard to say that I liked the story. The movie includes three stories in different time periods and different locations. Although the stories seem irrelevant, they all depict women’s desperate mental condition. In 1923, England, Virginia Woolf’s husband took her from London to a small village, where he thought would be good for her writing. It was a good intention of his but Virginia suffocated in her lonesome country life. In 1951, Los Angeles, Laura Brown could not bear the daily routines a housewife had to do so she left her family and ran away in pain. It was a similar depression for Clarissa, who took good care of her former lover Richard, but watched him commit suicide.
It was so desperate that it took almost the most negative look on life and especially lives of women. Female was pictured fragile and lost. Their feelings were hard for me to relate to, because they all seemed to be troubled in their own fairs and ignoring the bright side of life. However, I could understand their feelings as a different view point towards life. I believed it was the sentiment inherited from works of Virginia Woolf, and especially her novel Mrs. Dalloway, which was referred to throughout the movie.
For a movie like this, which I cannot quite appreciate the story but can’t help falling in love with, I think I would give the credits to the directors. I have to admit the Hours is a good movie, an unique and unforgettable piece, only because it achieves an extraordinary narrative that takes me along with it in every minute, gives me surprises and keeps me wondering what is going to happen in the next scene.
In films, there are some parts that seem to be the indirect approach of the filmmakers’ that the filmmakers may not be aware of the impression it gives the audience by making it intentionally. They may realize that after the parts are done, or even later when they realize from reviews. But everything in the Hours is strictly precise and coherent that it must had been extremely well planned before even a small scene was shot. Objects like flowers and cake, simple movements like opening a door, and lines like “I’ll be the flower myself” connect three different stories in three periods. The movie is shot in such a delicate way that accurately captures the complex psychological states of women. The style matches the content perfectly, and the combination of the two creates a tone of the movie that narrates the story smooth like stream flowing, tender like women themselves.
The dispute scenes were most enjoyable to me, including the one with Virginia and her husband at the train station, and the one with Clarissa and Richard’s friend in the kitchen. The scene where Laura sits in the bathroom and her devoted husband waits in the bed calling her name was also a highlighted moment in the movie. They presented the tremendous confrontation in the characters’ inner life, and how they struggle with it, and with the burden of obligation and their own salvation.
The movie would not make to its point without the amazing performance by three marvelous actresses, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman. The scoring by Philip Glass is also a remarkable aspect that contributes to the success of the movie.
3 comments:
Overall I really enjoy your entire blog and I think that the colors, fonts and pictures work extremely well. I also like the introduction to the movie review. The language had personality and you told the reader about the story and also what you thought about it. For example, at the end of the first paragraph when you talk about your Netflix account it gives the piece personality. One thing I would note is at the end of the second paragraph you say that she watched “him committed suicide” you should say that she watched him “commit suicide” instead. I also liked that you pointed out specific parts of the film that you enjoyed and it makes me want to go and watch that film. (I have it on my Netflix as well!)
I have to first say that I love this movie. I have seen it so many times and it never gets old or irrelevant to me. I find the story beautiful, the music touching, the acting phenomenal, directing clear and the art direction wonderful.
I will have to disagree with you on some of your points by using more in depth analysis. I don't necessarily think that the point of the story was to shed a "negative" view of woman and of life. On the contrary, it is to show what struggles women have to deal with in different eras and how it all relates back to Virginia Woolf. Clarissa, especially, is the epidome of the story of Mrs. Dalloway because she hides her true feelings by throwing dinner parties. She thinks that everything is fine, even though her lover is gay and has AIDS. I find the story so powerful and compelling. Laura in Los Angeles in 1951 is shown as the epidome of the American mother and wife in the 50s. She has to be a "doll" to her husband and not have feelings or a life of her own. Virgina Woolf is in the same situation in 1923. She needs to have her own life and live in the country, but her husband would not let her. I think that all of the stories intertwine to further the theme of the treatment of women in the eras.
I loved your commentary about the director's role in the film and I agree 100 percent. Everything was so specifically and beautifully done! Great movie. Great review.
Although I have not seen the film, your review reminded me of a few things that I at once recognize in my own work and also have yet to see. You mentioned how the story was distant and tragic to you, that it didn’t allow you to relate to the characters. I feel, then, that the screenwriters for The Hours were not doing their job correctly. No matter if the story is commercially entertaining or not, as a writer, I am personally responsible for making sure that the characters have an air of humanism or emotion that every person can relate to, regardless if they have been in the situation or not. Also, no character should be one sided, as you mentioned the women in the story are irrevocably consumed in their depression toward life. However, I was very interested to see the tiny details you picked out, from how the cinematography and the dialogue work with the flower theme help connect the stories in a way that a script may or may not be able to do effectively. The bit about the stylistic choices of the shooting and how it relates to the delicacy of the women really stuck out to me because it’s something as a screenwriter I wouldn’t have noticed. I can see now why film is such a collaborative art form.
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