it wears its hearty ambitions on its sleeve, but never convinces that it’s about anything beyond its own morbidity
Comment
02/11/03
The Hours (2002)
81
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:185
Fresh:149
Rotten:36
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: The movie may be a downer, but it packs an emotional wallop. Some fine acting on display here.
Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Michael Cunningham, THE HOURS employs Virginia Woolf's classic novel and central character, MRS. DALLOWAY, as its foundation and inspiration. Spanning... [More]
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Toni Collette
Director: Stephen Daldry
Reviews for The Hours
For fans of the novel: Top notch! For those who have not read it: good enough to make you want to read it, which says a lot!
02/10/03
The Hours is shameless Academy-bait, unworthy of a nomination in any category outside of, 'Best Makeup.'
02/09/03
Watching this film is not easy, but it is rewarding and thought provoking.
02/09/03
Excellent dramatic storytelling.
02/09/03
This is my kind of film, it's about suicide, insanity, depression, terminal illness, Aids, and lesbianism.
02/04/03
'Imaginative, compelling and soundly perplexing, The Hours resonates with throbbing performances that cast a poignantly redemptive spell on the psyche of every woman looking to starve off that inescapable sensation of inadequacy.'
01/30/03
The Hours is at once a heavily textured, remarkably dense work and a model of simplicity (the story lines are actually deceptively straightforward); this is filmmaking at its best.
01/29/03
The movie cuts back and forth through time, letting these women finish each others sentences, encounters, and fill in the gaps of each others stories in a way that is amazing to see.
01/29/03
You’ll not likely come away from a viewing with a smile on your face, but you will almost certainly come away needing and wanting to talk about the experience.
01/26/03
A poignant meditation on regret, disappointment, getting on with life, and facing those hours.
01/26/03
There are wonderful performances here, but why watch them if by the end you want to slit your own throat.
01/24/03
One of the best films of the year.
01/24/03
...is there a deeper, more direct connection between these women, one that spans time and reveals meaning? You bet there is and it’s what makes this rather convoluted journey worth taking.
01/24/03
Click to read the article
01/24/03
Food for thought for anyone who digs on existential narrative and adult, mannered, stylized, well-acted character pieces.
01/24/03
Daldry slices scenes from the three women’s lives and fuses them into one momentous thrust.
01/23/03
The Hours shows that film can surpass the sort of psedo-lyrical prose that tends to win Pulitzers and Pen-Faulkners.
01/22/03
It’s no help that this is a story of privilege.
01/22/03
Never as engrossing as it ought to be, because its stories never really connect. Great noses, though.
01/21/03
Latest News for The Hours
May 05, 2008:
Kidman tipped to play Dusty 
Nicole Kidman has been tapped to play the bee-hived chanteuse, Dusty Springfield, in a biopic to be written by Michael Cunningham, who she worked with for The Hours. More...
June 21, 2006:
Natalie Portman Aboard "Boleyn" and "Kavalier"
The universally-adored and very cute Natalie Portman seems to have a pretty high profile pair of freshly-inked contracts. On one hand, she'll be starring in a historical drama... More...
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