Hours, The
I am not a woman. I have not read any Virginia Woolf. I do not know her novel Mrs. Dalloway intimately. I was probably not the intended audience for this film.
Everyone has heard about Nicole Kidman's prosthetic nose. You may also have heard about her winning the Academy Award for best actress for her role here – and some witty newspaper headlines that exclaimed that it was a tight field that year and she only won “by a nose.” (Hahahhaa…pretty sweet pun work actually, credit where credit is due.) Well the nose must have had something to do with it, because she does sweet bugger all acting here. Mostly she just sits in a chair writing her book, pausing every now and again to think of her next sentence, mumbling ideas to herself. She gets to have about one ‘acting' scene where she yells, and another ‘Oscar baiting' scene where she pashes her sister. And she's only in a third of the film, if that, and gets trounced in the acting department by reliable Streepy and Julianne Moore. But she's our Nic, and good on her.
Yes, she pashes her sister. Maybe it was her sister-in-law and isn't as gross as I'm thinking. But that's the other thing about The Hours . Is everyone in Dalloway Dallo-gay? It appears nearly every character in The Hours is. Oh – and everyone is suicidal as well. Maybe linking three separate stories from three different eras with the common thread of Dalloway works well in book form, but here it just feels laboured and gimmicky. However, if you are a woman, have read Virginia Woolf, know her novel Mrs Dalloway intimately, and are possibly secretly gay and suicidal then you are probably the intended audience for this film and would probably disagree with me.