MOVIE REVIEW: Nominations for ‘The Hours’ are well deserved — Grade A
Sometimes movies are made simply to entertain. They are pure escapism that can make you laugh, but you rarely take anything of lasting value with you when you leave the theater. Other films make you think. They examine the world from a perspective you may not have thought of and they make a lasting impression on your life. “The Hours” is a masterpiece of the second type that kept me contemplating life for days after watching it.
The story centers on Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) who is trying to write her first novel while dealing with a mental illness. The lives of two other women affected by the writing of her last novel “Mrs. Dalloway” complement the story. Julianne Moore plays a wife and mother in the 1950s who is dissatisfied with her life and contemplating suicide. Meryl Streep plays a modern-day woman dealing with her feelings about her past as well as the impending death of a friend battling AIDS. All three are searching for meaning in their lives, lives they feel they are living for others and not for themselves.
Director Stephen Daldry intertwines the three stories in a way that makes you think they are occurring simultaneously while offering us a view of how Woolf’s writing affects the other two.
The story strikes a mental chord on several levels. Many of us wonder how our lives would be different if we made different choices. Some may be thinking things would be better off if they ended it all. Others may discover that they have abandoned real happiness for what they thought would make them happy for the moment. These are the struggles these three women are dealing with. Woolf sums up the film best when she tells her husband that she is tired of being afraid to live. Life is something to be experienced, the good as well as the bad, and as Moore’s character says sometimes when faced with the choice between life and death we have to decide what it means to choose life.
Perhaps this movie exudes greatness in the simple, unabashed way these life-changing experiences are depicted. Subtle revelations are grasped as the characters find their own solutions. This is a film you will want to discuss with your friends or at least give some quality contemplating time to. Not only is this an Oscar-worthy film (it received nine nominations), it is easily one of the better films 2003 has seen so far.
Jared Sterzer is a senior majoring in business information systems. Comments may be sent to jwsterz@cc.usu.edu.