The Hours (2002)

This movie could be little bit boring for someone. But not many movies can describe living as a woman no matter 'when' and 'where' do you live, like 'The Hours' did. Three different women, they look different, their personalities are different, and they have to deal with their own different problems everyday .... but ironically they are all connected with another fictitious woman character, 'Mrs. Dalloway', so no matter how different they are, they go through with the same fate, 'living as women'.I am a woman too. I know the world is getting better and women's right has been improved a lot, but still a lot of women live under glass ceiling, which ask women to do this and do this, or not to do this... I hope this kind of movies keep coming so that we all can slowly break glass ceiling one by one.

I am still confused to this day why this would be nominated for Oscars. The acting was okay but it definitely didn't deserve a Best Picture nomination. A suicidal/lesbian film about three women who all have some connection to Mrs. Dalloway, a novel by Virginia Woolf. Nicole Kidman plays Virginia Woolf, the writer of the novel, Mrs. Dalloway, who strangely makes out with a woman who I think might have been her sister. Then she kills herself by drowning herself in a river. Julianne Moore plays Laura Brown, a housewife who randomly makes out with her friend, Toni Colette, who is about to undergo surgery. Laura almost kills herself by overdosing on pills in a hotel room but has a strange dream and does not do so. Meryl Streep plays Clarissa Vaughn, a publisher, who has a friend dying of AIDS. One day she goes to his apartment and he jumps out of a window. She then goes home and makes out with her partner, Allison Janney. I am so angry that i thought this would be good. Netflix gave it 2 stars & I should've taken there advice and stayed away.I HATE THIS MOVIE! DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE!

This movie, and the timing in which it came out, were just right to make an impact on my life. I was 22 when this was released and came out on VHS. I literally wore out the VHS tape because I watched it so often.I distinctly remember my gut reactions to this movie - especially to Clarissa's story line at the end. I felt that this movie was a truly interesting look at depression. It kind of makes you feel like: "snap out of it" at first. You get 3 different glances at three different female lives and at the beginning of the film it looks like all of them have pretty nice lives. It is also starkly obvious that none of them are happy in their "nice lives." This interests me particularly because the devastation is often pushed on to the depressed by those around them. It is very easy to think, or to say to them: "you have a good life. why can't you be happy?" The movie does not really address this for us. It does not tell us why they cannot be happy and I believe that is because each of these women wonder that a bit themselves - even to the extent of feeling some guilt about it. As each story unfolds it becomes obvious that their happiness or unhappiness is out of their control. Virginia has obviously battled her demons for most of her life and both her and her loved ones are close to the end of what they can bear. The first thing we see is Virginia's suicide, so you are warned very early that this movie is not going to be a gentle ride.Laura Brown was the most frustrating character to me personally. You can tell from the first glance of her that she's depressed. Her poor husband and child that both try so hard to connect with her but just cannot... and I felt so deeply for her little boy. It is obvious he knows something is wrong but also that he cannot fix it for her. It's a hard situation to watch. It's so important, though. Having a wonderful husband, children, a nice home... none of these things guarantee happiness.Clarissa is the character I sympathize with. She is longing for days past and is weighed down by her past - the things she she wishes she could return to and the opportunities she feels she missed. What I see as the watcher, though, is that maybe her expectations for herself and her life were just a little too high. I think this is an emotional place where many women find themselves.Here's my major spoiler - just a warning.The scene in which Richard commits suicide is so perfectly done. Meryl Streep's expression will stay with me forever. My husband accidentally sat down for the last half of of this movie a few days ago and I warned him: the end get rough. He just looked at me like that was silly. But when the end came, he was speechless. lol Many movies that touch on depression almost make my depression worse but this movie never has. I feel amazingly understood by the way this movie was handled.End game, it is a very well done movie. It's probably not the type of movie you want to show at a party, and I wouldn't say it's a really relaxing watch, but if you want to understand depression or want to feel that someone understands yours, hopefully this movie will help you too.

* Contains Spoilers* This may be a strange interpretation; it seems that the more conventional interpretation of this movie is that it demonstrates the unhappiness of women enmeshed in a patriarchal society. But if you take a closer look at the characters, you may get a sense of what I am talking about. Virginia Woolf tries to commit suicide twice in the movie and yet has servants who, at the behest of Virginia, are willing to go far into town to fetch ginger as an ingredient for a meal. Julianne Moore's character, despite having a bread-winning husband who establishes a secure, middle-class standing for her, is nevertheless unsatisfied with her routine life and moves away from her family after having her second child. Meryl Streep's character has to deal with a suicidal man who, despite having AIDS, writes a successful book that has won the acclaim of the world's best book critics. Both Virginia and the suicidal man commit suicide despite having access to the world's best doctors and psychologists. All three characters are well-off and nevertheless unhappy; they are thus all greedy and discontent. And their wealth seems to engender their unhappiness and greediness.*Contains Spoilers* There are obviously a lot of holes you can poke in my theory. Julianne Moore's character admits that she was happier as a librarian in Canada than as a housewife in the United States. Virginia admits that everyone is responsible for her own happiness and standing in life. The suicidal man's lover admits that he was happier after leaving him, and Meryl Streep's character understands why Julianne Moore's character sought a new life. I guess I am basing my argument on the assumption that the characters were not that much happier after making the decided changes. After all, the whole movie seems morose. If Meryl Streep's character has a hard time understanding what it takes to be happy, then how can she know whether or not Julianne Moore's character was that much happier after deciding to move away from her family? (Important to note that Meryl Streep's character was unhappy despite being surrounded by successful people. The suicidal man kills himself; he does this because he never felt loved by the mother who abandoned him (i.e. Julianne Moore's character.)) Thought-provoking movie. It is not as morose as the critics claim.7/10