*** Official "THE HOURS" Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

I searched for an official review thread for "The Hours" and didn't find one. If someone does find it, let me know and I'll merge my thread into it.

I thought this film did feature some awfully strong performance by the 3 female leads (Streep, Kidman, and Moore), and it also had good supporting performances by Ed Harris, and even Jack Daniels.

I'm not sure how you'd mount an Oscar campaign for the 3 actresses (which to put up in the leading actress vs. supporting actress categories) because each role is pivotal in how they influence the next generation within the story.

The only thing that detracts from the acting in this film (still a rather moving film in some respects), is that the screenplay doesn't do a good enough job explaining how these 3 main characters get to feel the way they feel at the point in which their stories are told, so you get this sense of emotional restlessness and pain, but you don't really know what caused such anguish and stirring within their hearts for them to behave the way they do in the film.

I give it 3 stars or a grade of B.

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "The Hours". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.
Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!
If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.
Crawdaddy

 

[ScottR]

Acting: A
Story/Plot Development:C
Score: D (too much at times)
Cinematography: B-


Final Score: C+

I like the message of the film, but not how it was played out.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) beautifully blends three separate stories into one exploring the deep confines of what it means to be alive, sacrifice, love and the pursuit of happiness.
It is a balancing act that achieves great precision as Daldry navigates his way in and out of three interlocking stories set in three different eras. With the haunting musical score of Philip Glass, a very dense screenplay by David Hare adapted from Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, a commanding performance by its three main leads and in what appears to be a seamless editing job by Peter Boyle, these elements all come together as one harmonious piece that becomes poetry in motion.
Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep are the perfect cast as they bring to life three complex characters. I found the story of Virginia Woolf (played by Kidman) to be the most compelling and provocative of the three stories for its more contemplative and observant driven narrative.
The Hours is full of emotions that challenges it audience to be anything but complacent.
~Edwin

 

[Hakan Powers]

Saw this yesterday.
All in all, a great film. Absolutely spectacular acting by pretty much the entire cast. Excellent editing, with seamless cuts between the different story lines of 1923, 1951 and 2001.
Btw Patrick, Jack Daniels? I know what you're thinking