The story of how the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives.The story of how the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives.The story of how the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 43 wins & 126 nominations total
- Lottie Hope
- (as Lyndsay Marshal)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- Trivia"The Hours" was the original working title of Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway".
- GoofsIn the Virginia Woolf segment, Leonard Woolf is shown setting type for their press, Hogarth Press. In fact, Leonard's hands shook so that he could not set type, and it was Virginia who did the typesetting. Virginia found setting type calming, and said that it shaped her feel for words on the page, influencing her approach to writing.
- Quotes
Clarissa Vaughn: I remember one morning getting up at dawn, there was such a sense of possibility. You know, that feeling? And I remember thinking to myself: So, this is the beginning of happiness. This is where it starts. And of course there will always be more. It never occurred to me it wasn't the beginning. It *was* happiness. It was the moment. Right then.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards (2003)
- SoundtracksBeim Schlafengehen
from "Four Last Songs"
Music by Richard Strauss
Text by Hermann Hesse
Performed by Jessye Norman, Soprano, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (as Gewandhaus Orchestra,
Leipzig)
Kurt Masur, Conductor
Courtesy of Decca Music Group Limited
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises
All of the women are influenced by novelist Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, all are reading the book at the time the moment of life crisis comes to them. Who would be more influenced by the book than its author Virginia Woolf played here by Nicole Kidman. Her story of suicide is well known and maybe she did reexamine her own writings in Mrs. Dalloway.
The other two stories are from 1951 Los Angeles and 2001 New York. In Los Angeles Julianne Moore seemingly the perfect suburban housewife feels trapped, especially in those times of forced conformity. She's married to your typical suburban dad in John C. Reilly and has one kid and one on the way. But she's reading Mrs. Dalloway and questioning herself.
The modern story in New York involves literary agent Meryl Streep who is taking care of an ex-husband who now has AIDS and is in the final stages. Streep is a lesbian and ex-husband Ed Harris is a gay man. But back in the day people, in fact in all three days, people felt a need to conform to societal norms. It was of course strongest in Virginia Woolf's time in the United Kingdom between the two World Wars. Streep and Harris served as each other's 'beards' even marrying because only now are same gender couples fighting for that right.
At first when I was watching The Hours I thought that maybe it should have just served as a three part film with individual stories. But the reason the film unfolds as it does with the cross-cutting between time and plots will be made clear at the end.
The Hours was up for a flock of Academy Awards including Best Picture, but it only won in one category, Best Actress for Nicole Kidman. Her portrayal of Virginia Woolf is an exercise in restraint and intelligence, her psychosis is very subtly suggested. Some might have chosen to chew the scenery, but in Nicole's case less turned out to be very much more.
Ed Harris was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Julianne Moore for Best Supporting Actress. Moore's appearance in that category was strictly to increase the chance that she or Kidman would win and it worked. But truth be told the three women all have about equal screen time. Harris is unforgettable as a dying man with the AIDS related dementia, questioning all around him including his continued existence.
The Hours is restrained, literate, and wonderful and gives lie to the fact that great screen roles for women just aren't being written.
- bkoganbing
- Mar 15, 2010
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Thời Khắc
- Filming locations
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $25,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $41,675,994
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $338,622
- Dec 29, 2002
- Gross worldwide
- $108,846,217
- Runtime1 hour 50 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1