by Peter Morris in Los Angeles
Director STEPHEN DALDRY enjoyed great critical and commercial success with his feature debut "Billy Elliott" and looks set to repeat that success with his second outing "The Hours" adapted by DAVID HARE from Michael Cunninghams Pullitzer prize winning novel .
It‘s worth noting however that this is not the sort of enjoyable heart warming film that the whole family would enjoy - in fact, on the face of it, three stories about three women in three different eras one of whom commits suicide, one who contemplates suicide and the third whose best friend and former lover is about to die- is hardly the stuff of a good night out unless you‘re a masochist! Having said that however it is a film which is well worth seeing for the outstanding cast and the fact that it‘s not your run of the mill formulaic Hollywood tale.
The first story features an almost unrecognisable NICOLE KIDMAN playing writer Virginia Woolf ( who finally drowned herself) at the period where she wrote her classic novel "Mrs Dalloway" - the role has already won her a Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Drama and could well bring her the BAFTA and/or Oscar many of us thought she deserved last year for "Moulin Rouge" and "The Others". She is ably supported by the excellent STEPHEN DILLANE as Leonard Woolf and MIRANDA RICHARDSON as her sister.
In the fifties segment JULIANNE MOORE plays a housewife metaphorically drowning in her own life whose only escape is to lose herself in Virginia Woolfs novel "Mrs Dalloway". The excellent JOHN C. REILLY ( "Chicago", "Gangs of New York", "Boogie Nights") plays her husband and TONI COLLETTE ( "About a Boy" , "The Sixth Sense") plays her best friend.
In the modern day segment MERYL STREEP plays a New York book editor whose best friend and former lover has nicknamed her "Mrs Dalloway" and she‘s busy trying to organise a party for him against his wishes as he‘s dying of AIDS . The ex lover is played by ED HARRIS ( "Pollock", "Apollo 13") , her current lover is played by ALLISON JANNEY ( "American Beauty" and Tv‘s "The West Wing"), her daughter is played by CLARE DANES ("The Rainmaker", "Igby Goes Down", "Terminator 3").
Ok it‘s not a barrel of laughs but it does feature some of the finest actors and actresses working today and they get to strut their stuff in a manner that is sure to land at least a couple of them major silverware during this year‘s round of awards.- Nicole being my tip for Best Actress.
Not the biggest crowd pleaser we‘ll see this year but a serious contender in most award categories in front of and behind the cameras and for those reasons
UK Release: 14th February 2003
Celebrities Worldwide Rating: 7.5 out of 10
David Jensen Photography:
https://www.davidjensen.co.uk/
