The Hours

 

The Hours 2002

• Director: Stephen Daldry
• Seen by this director: Billy Elliot the Musical Live, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Reader, Billy Elliot
• Based on the book by Michael Cunningham
• Cast: Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Ed Harris, Allison Janney, Stephen Dillane, Miranda Richardson, John C Reilly, Toni Collette, Margo Martindale, Claire Danes, Jeff Daniels, Eileen Atkins
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Nicole Kidman – Destroyer, Top of the Lake, Genius, Queen of the Desert, Strangerland, Before I Go to Sleep, The Railway Man, Rabbit Hole, Nine, Australia, The Gold Compass, Margo at the Wedding, Fur, The Interpreter, Cold Mountain, The Human Stain, Dogville, Birthday Girl, The Others, Moulin Rouge, Eyes Wide Shut, Practical Magic, Batman Forever, Billy Bathgate
• Meryl Streep – Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, Suffragette, Into the Woods, August Osage County, Mamma Mia, A Prairie Home Companion, Angels in America, Adaption, Music of the Heart, Marvin’s Room, Bridges of Madison County, The House of Spirits, Post Cards from the Edge, Ironweed, Out of Africa, Silkwood, Sophie’s Choice, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Kramer vs Kramer, The Deerhunter, Holocaust
• Julianne Moore – The Hunger Games Mockingjay 1&2, The Kids Are All Right, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Children of Men, Far from Heaven, The Shipping News, The End of an Affair, A Map of the World, The Big Lebowski, Surviving Picasso, The Fugitive, Benny and Joon   
• Ed Harris – Cymbeline, Snowpiercer, Gone Baby Gone, Copying Beethoven, A History of Violence, The Human Stain, A Beautiful Mind, Pollock, Glengarry Glen Ross, Swing Shift, Abyss
• Allison Janney – I Tonya, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Girl on the Train, Get on Up, The Help, Juno, 10 Things I Hate about You, The Ice Storm
• Stephen Dillane – Zero Dark Thirty, Perfect Sense, Nine Lives, Hamlet
• Miranda Richardson – Testament of Youth, Made in Dagenham, Harry Potter, Young Victoria, Paris je t’aime, Gideon’s Daughter, Wah-Wah, Get Carter, Black Adder, Sleepy Hollow, The Crying Game, Enchanted April, Dance with a Stranger
• John C Reilly – Guardians of the Galaxy, A Prairie Home Companion, The Aviator, Chicago, The Good Girl, The Perfect Storm, Georgia
• Toni Colette - Knives Out, Imperium, Hereditary, A Long Way Down, Enough Said, Mental, Fright Night, The Dead Girl, Night Listener, Little Miss Sunshine, In Her Shoes, About a Boy, Hotel Splendide, Sixth Sense, Velvet Goldmine, Muriel’s Wedding
• Margo Martinadale – August Osage County, Beautiful Creatures, Paris je t’aime, Million Dollar Baby, The Human Stain, Proof of Life, 28 Days, Practical Magic, Marvin’s Room, Dead Man Walking, Lorenzo’s Oil
• Claire Danes – Stardust, Terminator 3, Romeo & Juliet, Igby Goes Down, Les Misérables, To Gillian on her 37^th Birthday, Little Women
• Jeff Daniels – The Martian, Looper, Good Night and Good Luck, The Squid and the Whale, Pleasantville, Speed, Terms of Endearment
• Eileen Atkins – Beautiful Creatures, Robin Hood, Last Chance Harvey, Cranford, Cold Mountain, Gosford Park, Wit, Cold Comfort Farm, Titus Andronicus, The Dresser
• Why? The cast
• Seen: Once before. Now 1 May 2021      

       It starts with Virginia Wolff’s suicide in England in 1941, then switches to LA in the 50s, then NYC in 2001.

       Three women, three times, three parallel stories. Virginia Wolff (Kidman) and her husband Leonard (Dillane), Virginia struggling with her writing and mental illness. Laura (Moore), pregnant, struggling with suburban life and reading Mrs Dalloway. Clarissa (Streep), arranging a big do to celebrate the prestigious literature award granted to her ex Richard (Harris), who is dying of AIDS.

       Three despairing women living Mrs Dalloway’s life while families and friends look on, unable to help.

       The film is about hopelessness, death and survival and it’s compelling. Kidman won an Oscar. They all could have. 

 4 ½ * of 5