The Hours

I would like to talk more about what I felt after watching the movie rather than just bringing out a technical and cinematic evaluation of the story telling. Films always have a one-liner which becomes the very basis of the story and sometimes what the storyteller wants to convey.” The hours” is an assortment of different stories indicating one simple fact about us- “We are trivial but that’s what life is all about. We need a reason to live, to be driven, to be desired and at the end we do what we want. We have to move on.” For me that’s what the film is all about. From the very beginning the film takes you in with a non-linear narrative and a soundtrack which really creates the right mood with a proper built up and the sheer repetitiveness symbolizing the thought process of the characters. “The hours” is a story of women from three different generations connected by the novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. In 1920’s Virginia woolf is writing the novel, in 1950’s Laura brown is reading the novel and preparing a cake for her husband’s birthday and in 2001 Carissa Vaughan is arranging a celebration for her friend and poet Richard who is suffering from AIDS. I really feel that the film lacks an explanation about the novel which is read by Laura Brown in the 1950s and the impact that novel makes in Clarissa Vaughan’s and Richard’s life in 2001, though the magnitude and multiplicity of impact the novel makes on different generations of people who are somehow symbiotically connected has been shown meticulously by the director. At a certain point in the first half it really leaves one ambiguous about how are the three characters connected. But nevertheless the screenplay is tightly written managing all the three generations at the same time which is a task in itself and a superb juxtaposition. It does ask for a lot of patience as the characters built up slowly and create three different impressions on your mind, three different problems faced by women from three different generations. I particularly like the character of laura brown played by Julianne Moore in a splendid manner. It typically shows the restlessness of a 1950’s American housewife trying to live the American dream and become a nice house wife for a hard working husband. It takes me to the character of Elizabeth Francis from the American T.V series MadMen. There is a dreadful unhappiness which Laura is hiding with an outwardly façade of happiness. On the surface she is happy about her pregnancy and the prospect of having a child but when her neighbor and friend kitty confides in her the pain of not able to conceive a child and enjoy the feeling of motherhood, Laura’s totally opposite feeling is revealed. She is not happy about having a child, living a stable life with a loving husband and above all the notion of raising kids in the future. The commitment towards the family makes her restless. Her attempt at committing suicide fails. In 2001, the problem of Clarissa Vaughan seems more real and believable. The character is based in the present times; we can relate to the problems. In 1920’s, Virgina woolf’s character has many personalities. She seems to be a thoughtful and decisive woman while she is framing the characters for her novel and a deeply troubled woman not able to adjust into a suburban life when it comes to her real personal life. One of the most symbolic scenes being the death of the bird and the way Virginia tries to experience what it means to be at peace with one’s own self. These all things add to her bouts of depression and nervous breakdown which she is suffering from. The screenplay seems to be a very calculative one. In the beginning all the characters are established and situations move rapidly but at a certain point in the film the characters are left lose which provides us with the space to ponder into their life. Again in the later half the film picks up the pace and reveals the one-liner (which I mentioned above) in a smooth manner.