Rarely have I seen a movie that is as emotionally intense and focussed as "The Hours," since the era of Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, and Ingmar Bergman.
Nicole Kidman gives an absolutely perfect, crystalline performance in the role of Virginia Woolf. In this role, for the first time, she has succeeded in submerging her own off-screen personality into that of her character, a rare accomplishment for an actor who has become recognized as "a star." She didn't even look like Nicole Kidman playing a role; she looked like "the" Virginia Woolf, though not quite as homely. Julian Moore and Ed Harris are not far behind, either.
This movie has been described by some other reviewers as "too long and too boring." But the whole point of the movie is the portrayal of three lives in which the empty, oppressive monotony of time - "The hours, Clarissa, the hours" - gradually bears down upon and drives to extreme actions three of the characters: Virginia Woolf herself (Nicole Kidman), Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), and Richard Brown, her son, who is played as an adult dying of AIDS by Ed Harris and as a child by Jack Rovello. This is in ironic contrast to Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep), who is able to find escape from the existential angst by focussing her life on other people.
This is not a movie for the faint of heart who are uncomfortable with intense emotion; nor for those who fly from self-examination; nor for those of limited intellect. It is very much a film for adults.
Nicole Kidman gives an absolutely perfect, crystalline performance in the role of Virginia Woolf. In this role, for the first time, she has succeeded in submerging her own off-screen personality into that of her character, a rare accomplishment for an actor who has become recognized as "a star." She didn't even look like Nicole Kidman playing a role; she looked like "the" Virginia Woolf, though not quite as homely. Julian Moore and Ed Harris are not far behind, either.
This movie has been described by some other reviewers as "too long and too boring." But the whole point of the movie is the portrayal of three lives in which the empty, oppressive monotony of time - "The hours, Clarissa, the hours" - gradually bears down upon and drives to extreme actions three of the characters: Virginia Woolf herself (Nicole Kidman), Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), and Richard Brown, her son, who is played as an adult dying of AIDS by Ed Harris and as a child by Jack Rovello. This is in ironic contrast to Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep), who is able to find escape from the existential angst by focussing her life on other people.
This is not a movie for the faint of heart who are uncomfortable with intense emotion; nor for those who fly from self-examination; nor for those of limited intellect. It is very much a film for adults.