Few films have moved me so much as "The Hours". Many good things can be said about this deeply emotional and highly original drama.The plot transcends time and space to show the existential agony of Man (or more precise of Woman). It combines the real character (Virginia Woolf) with two fictitious ones who seem to be characters out of Woolf's own books. Death,madness and suicide are never away from all three main characters, making the plot very, very tense emotionally.It is a film which should be watched very carefully as there are numerous, seemingly petty details, which, however, are of great importance in understanding the meaning of the whole complex story(or stories which intertwine and "mirror" one another) to create a vast philosophical panorama of human Life. I am not ashamed to admit that by my second viewing of the film, I "caught" lots of details that I have missed at the first viewing. Perhaps the best thing about the film is that it is a PHILOSOPHICAL one. This is so rare in cinema which has always been more of an entertainment, rather than art. As I am a great admirer of literature and consider it the greatest genre in art, I enjoyed very much this respect towards literature as shown in the film through the fate of Virginia Woolf. Art imitates Life but the opposite is also true:often Life imitates Art fulfilling its forecasts.For example the scene when Woolf plans that her heroine Mrs. Dallaway " to kill herself over something trivial" almost becomes reality with Mrs. Brown.Basically the problems confronting people emotionally stay the same through the ages--only the clocks change,but Time doesn't because everything is repeated again and again.Also, another aspect of the film that I enjoyed:almost all characters in the film make great sacrifices for the ones who they love. It is precisely this love that makes them struggle heroically with the complexities and burden of life. True, they fail in the end: Clarissa couldn't stop Richard from committing suicide, Laura abandons both her children and Virginia Woolf couldn't stand the difficulty to live at the end. But without this love these deaths would have happened much sooner.I like that people are presented in their complex relationships with other people. We sometimes tend to forget that Art is above all the analyzing of human RELATIONSHIPS in all their complexities. And you may ask me why after all these praises I gave 9 and not 10? The answer is that I was irritated by the three erotic kisses in the film. Call me old-fashioned if you like but I do think that the introduction of sexuality in such a film is totally inappropriate. Art is about the soul, not the body. Not to mention the fact that such a sexual drive is psychologically untrue in these scenes. One of modern culture's greatest sins is this over-celebration of the human body and of sexuality at the expense of the spiritual. Too much sex, too little love--this is what we have today in painting, literature,cinema... I guess these scenes are present in the film because Mr. Cunningham is openly gay. Still, I do find it inappropriate in such a film that is preoccupied with the subtlest feelings of the human soul, to spoil it with cheap sex although these kisses look innocent enough compared to what I have seen in other films. It is only because of this that I refrained from giving 10. I must also say that all three actresses deserve an Oscar for these very demanding roles.
The film is very good but the book is even greater and an absolute must for lovers of art and literature in my opinion.
The film is very good but the book is even greater and an absolute must for lovers of art and literature in my opinion.