The hours

The Hours (The Hours) is a 2002 American drama film directed by Stephen Daldry. The screenplay, written by David Hare, is an adaptation of Michael Cunningham's 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name.

The entire story takes place over the course of a single day; is about three women in different eras and generations, whose lives are connected through Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway. Nicole Kidman plays Virginia Woolf in 1923, while she was writing Mrs. Dalloway, Julianne Moore is an unhappy wife reading the book in 1951, and Meryl Streep plays a bisexual New York editor, a modern-day Mrs. Dalloway who cares for a writer friend, with whom she had an affair at her youth, in advanced stages of AIDS and has decided to throw a party for him.

The film opened in Los Angeles and New York on December 25, 2002. It received several international awards, including the Best Actress Oscar for Nicole Kidman.

Plot

It is based on the lives of 3 women at three different times of the 20th century. The film revolves around the novel Mrs. Dalloway.

• Virginia Woolf (1923).
  • Start writing the novel Mrs. Dalloway. It shows his mental health problems, the hard struggle against bipolarity that was diagnosed at that time, his frequent hallucinations and inconveniences that the disease brought to him throughout his adult social life. Also the way he advanced the writing of his novel and his problems of understanding with his husband.
• Laura Brown (1951).
  • Read the novel during your husband's birthday. Despite the apparent happiness that envelops your world, your world comes upon you when you know that a neighbor whom you secretly love is ill and can die. Try to kill yourself. There is debate between following with or leaving your family. After the suicide, he decides to leave his family after having the daughter he expects.
• Clarissa Vaughan (2001).
  • It is the contemporary version of the protagonist of the novel that Virginia is writing. She is ambivalently in love with her friend Richard, a brilliant poet who is dying of AIDS and who is Laura Brown's son.

It focuses on the lives of three women searching for meaning in their lives. Despite living in different times, they are united by their desires and fears. Furthermore, the film is set against the backdrop of lesbianism and its social impact at 3 different times in history. The fate of the three women is linked in some uncertain way.

Cast

Nicole Kidman plays Virginia Woolf.

• Meryl Streep (Clarissa Vaughan)
• Nicole Kidman (Virginia Woolf)
• Julianne Moore (Laura Brown)
• Stephen Dillane (Leonard Woolf)
• Miranda Richardson (Vanessa Bell)
• Ed Harris (Richard Brown)
• John C. Reilly (Dan Brown)
• Charley Ramm (Angélica Bell)
• Toni Collette (Kitty)
• Claire Danes (Julia Vaughan)
• Jeff Daniels (Louis Waters)
• Eileen Atkins (Barbara)

Reception

Box Office

The Hours received a limited release in Canada and the United States on December 27, 2002, with a national release on February 14, 2003, in order to earn money from Oscar nominations. Its international release was on November 18, 2003. With a budget of $25 million, The Hours was a worldwide success, grossing more than $41.6 million in the United States and Canada, and more of $67.1 million in other countries of the world, making a total of more than $108.8 million dollars, four times its budget. It was the 56th highest grossing film of 2002.

Reviews

The Hours was praised by critics and is 80% "fresh" on the Rotten Tomatoes critics page.

The official catchphrase for The Hours came from her performance, especially from Nicole Kidman, whose fake nose made her unrecognizable in her role as Virginia Woolf.

Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote: "Miss Kidman, in a role of true art, teases our minds, draws us into the war with her brilliant performance, her story is fascinating which makes us travel through time, the actress is great." Thus, Kidman won the Golden Globe awards for Best Actress in a Drama and her Oscar Award for Best Actress. At both ceremonies the actress was nominated along with her co-star Julianne Moore, who was nominated for the film Far from Heaven . Also Meryl Streep and Ed Harris received a Golden Globe nomination (Streep in the same category as Kidman), and Julianne Moore and Ed Harris received Oscar nominations in the supporting categories. Meryl Streep received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the film Adaptation.

Awards

Oscars

Golden Globes

Soundtrack

Song Lists