Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Hours

This is topic The Hours in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 02-15-2003, 06:45 PM:

I went into this film with a little trepidation. Even though Michael Cunningham is one of my favorite contemporary writers, I was concerned about what applying a film narrative would do to the book. I was relieved to say it caught the flavor very well.

I was expecting a downer, as suicidal people face their lives head-on, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. But despite clinically depressed and terminally ill characters, the film manages to be ultimately life-affirming.

WAY too much noise has been made about Nicole Kidman's nose. Who cares? The important thing in this film is the quality of her perfoprmance. Subtle nuances reveal much to recognize the psychic depression she suffers. Julianne Moore plays a fifties housewife with a contemporary performance contrasting the VERY 50's movie acting style in FAR FROM HEAVEN. Meryl Streep again demonstrates why she is part of the great actresses of film. Ed Harris plays fairly predictable here as a man in the last stages of AIDS.

A worthy film of a Best Picture nomination.