THE HOURS
US/UK, 2002, 117 minutes, Colour.
Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Ed Harris, Alison Janney, Jeff Daniels, Eileen Atkins, Clare Danes, John C. Reilly, Toni Collette, Stephen Dillane, Miranda Richardson.
Directed by Stephen Daldrey.
Virginia Woolf is still being read and is still being studied in schools and at universities. Some of her novels make demanding reading. However, her smaller novel, Mrs Dalloway, is much more accessible (and was filmed in 1997 with Vanessa Redgrave in the lead role). The Bloomsbury writers were not interested in religious themes as such but they were intensely interested in human nature and values. Mrs Dalloway was written as a symbol of an ordinary middle class woman during one day in 1923, coping with her family, preparing a party, facing issues of death and trying to understand her life.
In 1999, American novelist, Michael Cunningham, published a novel, The Hours, in which he created two stories, one set in 1951, the other in modern times, paralleling incidents in the life of Mrs Dalloway. His third story was that of Virginia Woolf herself writing her novel. The novel moved fluidly from one story to the other. Celebrated playwright, David Hare, has adapted the novel for the screen and kept the fluidity and the parallels as the three stories intercut one another.
The Hours has already won Golden Globes and has been nominated for several Oscars which make it one of the more important films to be released this year. One of the great challenges to Catholic reviewers and Catholic audiences is to be attentive to the searches for values in films. Just as Jesus told 'secular' stories in his day, the parables which have now become religious stories, so film-makers today offer parables that ask questions about what we believe in.
Virginia Woolf suffered from both physical and mental illnesses and ultimately took her own life by drowning (which is portrayed in this film). However, it is the glimpse into her being mentally and emotionally disturbed that demands our understanding. Mental illness can be exhausting and exasperating for a carer (as was seen in last year's Iris, with John Bayley caring for Iris Murdoch as she slipped into Alzheimer's disease). Leonard Woolf is as desperate to protect her from herself.
The caring theme is taken up more explicitly in the contemporary story which has Meryl Streep as a New York editor caring for years for her poet and novelist friend, Richard, for whom AIDS has meant not only physical collapse but mental as well. On the day that he is to receive a literary award, his friend Clarissa (whom he nicknames Mrs Dalloway) is preparing a party for him. In a cruel, but somehow truthful way, he tells her that he lives on only because she wants him to, so that she can care for him. This disturbs her deeply, making her reassess her attitudes.
The 1951 story is really the saddest. A pregnant wife makes a birthday cake for her devoted husband but really wants to end her life of depression. Reading Mrs Dalloway influences her decision to live but she makes a more profoundly distressing decision to walk out on her family.
Responding to The Hours touches deep chords in our lives and should open us up to more understanding and compassion for those whose experience is more tormented than our own. Directed by Stephen Daldrey, The Hours has a superb cast led by Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf.
1. The popularity of the novel, the challenge of it to be filmic, the work of playwright David Hare on the screenplay? The skills of Stephen Daldrey as theatre director and film director? Philip Glass's score? The quality credentials of the film?
2. The basis on Virginia Woolf and her writing Mrs Dalloway? Mrs Dalloway as an archetypal novel, the British middle-aged woman, 1923, the aftermath of World War One, her social life, preparing the party, her relationship with her family, someone ill, the importance of a death so that life could be better appreciated? A day with a crisis for her life and change?
3. The structure of the film, the various stories mirroring the novel, the way that they intercut and were edited? The surprise of Laura moving from the 1951 story into the contemporary story?
4. The title, the focus on time and its meaning, Virginia Woolf's explanation?
5. The introduction to Virginia Woolf, her age, experience, reputation as a novelist, her physical illness, mental illness and her voices, depression? The performance by Nicole Kidman, the nose, her submerging her personality into that of Virginia Woolf? The sketch of Leonard, the doctor, Vanessa and her children, the domestic staff?
6. Virginia Woolf's day, seeing her at work, her intuitions for the novel, talking aloud, talking to herself, the interaction with the servants, their spurning of her and her being intimidated, yet her wanting the maid to go on the journey to London to get the ginger for the children, Leonard and the printing press, bought for her and their publications? The preparations for Vanessa and the children's visit, their arriving early and her remarks about how this disrupted the timetable for Leonard? The children playing, the funeral of the bird, tea? Virginia talking to herself, the boys laughing? Their departure - and the significance of her kissing Vanessa, and Vanessa's reaction? Her deciding to go for a walk, going to Richmond station, her comments about Richmond and her suffocating there, wanting to go back to the life in the city, Leonard's finding her, their discussion, her condition, pleading with him? The finality of the death and her walking into the river to drown?
7. Leonard and his relationship to Virginia, his work, his staff, the purpose of the printing press, the visit of Vanessa and his exactness? Checking with the staff about Virginia, rushing to the station, finding her, their discussion and his plans for the future? The relationship with Vanessa, a different type, social status, Virginia's comments about not being invited to dinners, but being pleased to be invited? The children playing, her pensive mood with the funeral of the bird, her disregard of the boys laughing, the farewell, the impact of the kiss?
8. The sketch of the servants, the indignation of Nellie, complaining, talking about not having orders, the demands, the trip to London, the second maid and her reactions?
9. Clarissa's story, her being a woman who was concerned for others and caring for them, Richard calling her Mrs Dalloway, her Mrs Dalloway Day, the nature of her relationship with Sally, long-standing, Sally and her presence, support, relaxed? The visit to the flower shop and the discussion with the woman there, especially about Richard's novel and how long and difficult it was, taking ten years to write? Going to visit Richard, caring for him for years, their discussions about his condition, his life's work, the novel, her being in the novel and people realising that? Her caring for a man with AIDS? His challenge that she had a need for him to continue living? Her being hurt? Going home, bustling about, preparing the party, the arrival of Lewis, their discussions, memories, her crying? Her daughter's arrival, their frank relationship? Her going again to Richard, saying that he needn't come to the celebration or the party, his pulling down the curtains, his sitting on the windowsill, the discussions, killing himself? Her clearing up, throwing out the special crab dish that he liked, her grief, Laura's arrival, their discussions, discussions with her daughter, the support of Sally, going to rest? A Mrs Dalloway Day, a change for what she stood for and believed in, especially in her caring for others? The importance of her memories of her happy times with Richard?
10. Richard and his work, poet, the ten years and writing the novel, incorporating Clarissa, his mother, Lewis? Lewis and the relationship? His partners, AIDS, his mental breakdown, the discussions with Clarissa, telling her that he lived for her and that she needed this, the memories, the desperation, tearing the curtains down, bringing in the light, sitting on the windowsill and his discussion about death, throwing himself down?
11. Lewis, his arrival, his story, the sense of freedom in breaking from Richard, the discussion about being in love with a student, his supporting Clarissa in her depression?
12. Laura's story, 1951, the décor, cars, clothes? The well-mannered 50s? Her husband, the war experience, their knowing each other when they were young, his putting her on a pedestal? Her relationship with her son, making the birthday cake, his guiding her? The failure and her throwing it out? Kitty's arrival, the discussion with Kitty, Mrs Dalloway and her reading it, Kitty's illness, offering to drive, to visit? Her own state of mind, physical condition, pregnancy? Her leaving the boy with the neighbour, checking into the hotel, contemplating her pregnancy, planning her death, the pills? Mrs Dalloway and the reading, her deciding to live? Returning, picking up the boy, preparing the dinner, sitting watching her husband, his kindly talk, her son?
13. Kitty's story, a typical woman of the period, support for her husband, friendship with Laura, not understanding the book, her own illness, the tests, the brave face and the laughing? An effective vignette?
14. The sketch of Laura's husband, seemingly a good man, supporting her but not understanding her?
15. The irony of Laura being Richard's mother, her leaving the children, Richard's resentment, her daughter's death, her husband dying of cancer? Leaving everyone for herself, explaining everything to Clarissa, working in the library, knowing that she was in the book? The reference to her as a monster, yet Clarissa and her daughter being kind to her?
16. Relationships, heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, issues of orientation, behaviour, understanding sexual orientation in the 20s, in the 50s, in the 21st century?
17. Themes of health and illness, mental health, care for the mentally ill, the consequences of depression?
18. The coherence of each of the three stories throwing light on each other?
