The Hours (the movie)

I recently watched this movie.

SIDENOTE: I know this may be yesterdays news for most of my unattached single friends, but I only get to see movies (not containing cartoon characters) only when they come out on DVD and I can watch them quietly in my home without the expense of a babysitter. You may reconsider a movie trip too if you had to add an addition $30 to your movie experience expense for childcare. Ignore me, you know the grass is always greener...

Anyway, enough ranting, I really went into this movie blindly, big mistake, or maybe not, but that is beside the point. I really only watched it because Nicole Kidman won an Oscar for it so I thought it may be good, I love dramas, and they made her look so very different, I just had to see it.

SYNOPSIS: This movie, as I got it, was about how a book that directly and indirectly affected the lives of three women in three periods of time. One woman, the author and how the book affected her as she wrote it in the 20's. A longing housewife and how it affected her in the 50's. And finally a modern day woman was indirectly affected by it because of her relationship with the son of the woman from the 50's. I think that was it. It had fairly consistent homosexual overtones throughout that sometimes caught me off guard. Yet they worked with the feel of mystery this movie seemed to revolve around.

MY REVIEW: The things I loved were the drama, the acting, and the relationship the characters that seemed so possible. Let me explain that last one. The relationships were dysfunctional in most cases and the story helped confirm my thoughts that this sort of dysfunction happens regularly with people around us (which I can identify with) without our knowledge. For the most part, these women had very successful lives in spite of their dysfunctional relationships and in most cases did a pretty good job of hiding it and continued being successful. I have a lot of respect for women who overcome adversity and problems to come out the other side with some grace and success making it look like the difficulties did not exist. This movie had three women like that. Loved that part.

However, I was not so crazy about the ambiguity and lack of explanation of some characters actual relationships. For instance, who was Nessa? Was it her sister or a close friend? I thought it was her sister until the goodbye kiss. This made the kiss much more shocking for me. Maybe that was the point. But incestuous and homosexual? That would be too much for any woman and only confirm her madness. Perhaps that was the point. And who where the three kids Nessa had with her? If they were her children, why did they not call her mom, but Nessa instead? I can assume they were, but it was not clear. Was the Julia a product of artificial insemination? Or a product of Clarissa's relationship with Richard? Was Richard and Clarissa once straight and then gay? Were they married or just a one night stand?

These are just a few. Too many unanswered questions for me. Too much is not clear. Maybe I have become simple in the past few years. Jaded from all the clear cut kid movies I have had to endure. Or maybe others felt the same about this one. Let me know.

Even though I would not give the story a great review. I still think this movie is worth your time because of the acting, strong emotional relationships and strong female characters. Or...If for no other reason than to try to find Nicole Kidman behind that make-up.