The Hours

I've been having some trouble summing up my thoughts on The Hours, and I feel that demonstrates how complex and rich this film actually is. Although I do have some problems with it, I feel that around 80% of The Hours was of the highest quality in terms of acting, cinematography, soundtrack, and writing. I especially liked the third of the movie that focused on Virginia Woolf as a character. Had the entire movie been about her and her experiences I would think even more of it than I already do.Ed Harris was also amazing as the new Richard character. Overall, I would say that The Hours can be called a truly quality piece of cinema.

...but I didn't like it.

I know that may sound silly after I spent the last paragraph praising the film to death, but there's one element that I haven't mentioned that completely ruins the experience for me. I hate the entire 50's plotline.



So many elements of this third of the movie rubbed me the wrong way that I could no longer stand the plot itself. One of the biggest reasons is the character of Laura Brown. Now, usually I'm a pretty big Julianne Moore fan. Almost every role I've seen her in is packed with depth, emotion, and humanity (e.g. The Kids Are All Right, The Big Lebowski, Children of Men, etc), but here her acting is so flat and unappealing that I can't help but be drawn out of the experience. Whenever the camera lingers on her as she attempts to emote I consistently felt a feeling of bewilderment come over me. I don't know if I'm alone in this interpretation but Moore's performance of slowly forcing out every syllable of her dialogue didn't communicate the tortured soul of a repressed housewife to me but instead a tired actress who's having trouble remembering her lines. It's entirely possible that Moore's attempt at portraying depression is made to look even worse due to being juxtaposed to masterful portrayals from Harris, Kidman, and Streep. Regardless of the real reason, I found the performance stupendously awful.


Not only was the performance close to painful for me, but I found the character herself incredibly out of place in this kind of story. Compare Laura's motivations for suicide to our two other main candidates. Virginia Woolf is pushed to suicide by her mind itself, a brilliant but tortured thing that seems restricted by the confines of society and life itself. Richard, similarly, is mentally unstable, depression surrounding him as his disease spreads and life loses its meaning. Laura...well to be honest I can barely tell you. Where the other sections are able to richly communicate the suffering their characters are going through, all we ever really observe from Laura's life is that she has a caring husband who loves her unconditionally, a sweet son who seems to want to emulate her, and she's reading the beggining of Mrs Dalloway. Also she... talks... as if... she... is falling... asleep.

I don't want to rant for too long about all the thematic ways the 50s section detracts from the rest of the movie because I'm sure nobody will get excited for a blog of THAT size. And besides, I do want to restate that I LOVE the other two sections. If it were possible I would consider putting the Viginia Woolf third of this movie in my personal top 100 movies. I mainly just want to hear other people's reactions to this. I really want to understand and connect to the 50s storyline, and if there's some underlying meaning or subtle nuance I'm missing then by all means help me  find it. For I'd rather be wrong and love a movie than right and hate one.