The Hours

Filme fraco, o roteiro é fraco, a história é fraca, o elenco é bom e só as protagonistas ajudam a melhorar o filme, e as cenas até que são mais ou menos com um drama, que não consegue fazer o filme ser bom.

A show case for several fantastic actress to do what they do best. However, they all deserve a better vehicle than this overly maudlin and self important film that has not very much to say other than Virginia Wolfe’s depression made its way into a book she wrote, a book that ended up in the hands of a mid twentieth century housewife who is also depressed, and her depression effects her son who is now a grown up in the early twenty first century and he is not only depressed and angry, he’s also dying of AIDS. And, well, that’s about it. Three people in three eras sit around and talk to family about…depression…and flowers. This conceit can be magical on the page of a book, but on screen it’s death, a beautiful kind of death, but never the less, it’s death. Besides the actresses, the photography and music are quite dazzling as is the set design. So much talent wasted on such a weak story.

Probably one of the most boring, agonising few hours I have ever spent in the movie house. I wanted to leave after 20 minutes, but kept telling myself that it can only get better. Right? Wrong. The quicksand of despair had its grip, and slowly dragged me under.

The Hours is almost a relic of a bygone era of premium cinema. The story is intense, almost awful, as are some of the main characters, but the film itself is a thing of beauty and is thus art. I miss these films.

absolutely a brilliant thought provoking film! acting was unbelievable, highly recommend!

Great actors (many) at the top of their game. A beautifully written, intelligent, original and sensitive screenplay. Amazing editing. Beautiful photography. The people that gave bad reviews don't know what cinema is, all they know is the usual Hollywood formula.

Don't think I ever saw this before, although the scenes of Julianne Moore baking a cake seem really familiar. Watched after just finishing reading "Mrs Dalloway". Who *wasn't* in this cast? Although I really enjoyed it, I could see why it may not have been popular at the time...the opening scenes cut amongst the different time periods so quicky one could easily lose viewers. I wouldn't call it a bio pic of Virginia Woolf, but I did enjoy the connection between the first and the second, and the second and the third. Fine acting!

In its pure form and style, "The Hours" boasts an effective cinematography with excellent performances. But at the level of content, things are not that simple, sadly. The movie succumbs to the postmodern tendency - quite common among artists and culture critics - to romanticize mental illness to the point of equating madness with freedom and normalcy with unfreedom. The character of Virginia Wool (Nicole Kidman) justifies her own suicide as something necessary “in order that the rest of us should value life more." And the character of Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) justifies the abandonment of her children – one of them who later commits suicide - as a choice of life over death. The movie does not merely present these facts to us as tragic deviations of human behavior – it normalizes them and even celebrates them as the ultimate consequence of the exercise of human freedom. So, I must be frank. I appreciate the movie's own artistic merits but find its content deeply controversial and mostly objectionable, and this should also count in the final rating.

Unbelievably pretentious and utterly baffling the critical praise it received at the time of its release. I put it down to there being virtually no intellectually stimulating/valuable American movies being made at the time. In a world of super hero Hollywood blockbusters, this must have seemed like a breath of fresh air to more discerning filmgoers. Alas now I believe it needs to be rewatched and re-reviewed. The overacting, the offensively bad nosejob on Kidman as Woolf, the absolute banality of it all. 2.5 stars is about right, if not generous.

I absolutely loved this from start to finish. Brilliant acting