The Hours (2002) * * *

Directed by:  Stephen Daldry

Starring:  Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Ed Harris, John C. Reilly, Claire Danes, Stephen Dillane, Allison Janney, Jeff Daniels

The main characters in The Hours are connected by the Virginia Woolf novel, Mrs. Dalloway.   One is Woolf (Kidman) herself, another is 1950's discontented housewife Laura Brown (Moore) who reads the novel while contemplating suicide, and a third is Clarissa (Streep), a modern-day woman who shares the same first name as the heroine of the Woolf novel and like Mrs. Dalloway is attempting to cater a party.   Virginia and Laura are closeted lesbians, while Clarissa lives with her partner (Janney) and raising a daughter (Danes) while checking in on close friend; Clarrisa's ex-husband Richard (Harris), who is dying from AIDS. 

There is a lot to digest in The Hours and occasionally this moves slowly, but the impact of several story arcs packs an emotional wallop.   All three characters are tended to by loving spouses to whom they can't or won't always allow themselves to connect.   Virginia's husband Leonard (Dillane) moved themselves to the London suburbs in hopes of quieting the angst within Virginia, but it only made Virginia more dispirited and depressed.   Laura has a husband and son who both love her, but she finds she cannot respond in kind, which makes her want to rent a hotel room, take pills, and never wake up again.   Clarissa is not suicidal, just torn between her duty to her family and her love for Richard, who is supposed to be the guest of honor at Clarissa's party, but we find he may not be in the partying mood.

Kidman is nearly unrecognizable thanks to makeup and a prosthetic nose, but she is brilliant here as the intelligent, haunted, and troubled writer who can't shake free of her demons.   Moore gives us a dichotomy of someone we should despise, but we end up understanding her motives.   Our version of what should make us happy doesn't always coincide with others' ideas.   Streep is harried and confused, trying to hold it together for everyone while she suffers.   Harris' Richard, we learn, is someone trapped in a world he no longer wishes to stay in, much like another person close to him a long time ago.   The Hours is a unique perspective on love, loss, and those who find they can't love no matter how hard they try.   This could be the most profound definition of tragedy I think of, one which The Hours explores in depth.