The Hours (2002 Film)

Stephen Daldry directed this 2003 adaptation of Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Hours. Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep star as three women in three eras all heavily influenced by the Virginia Woolf novel Mrs Dalloway -- Kidman portraying the author, Moore a reader and Streep the embodiment of the title character.

"David Hare's screen adaptation, directed by Stephen Daldry, reduces Woolf and her art to a set of feminist stances and a few plot points, without reference to style or form." -- Chicago Reader http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-hours/Film?oid=1059815

"As stunning an acting showcase as you'll find." Detroit News http://www.detnews.com/2003/entertainment/0301/17/e01-62251.htm

"The film has been acclaimed for its acting, but the craftsmanship with which this most difficult story has been assembled is on a par with the actors' achievements." -- Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ae/movies/reviews/1739657.html

The Hours opens and closes with the suicide of Virginia Woolf, played by Nicole Kidman. The body of the movie follows three women through a day in their lives in very different eras.

In 1923, Woolf is beginning to work on the novel Mrs. Dalloway and struggling with headaches and bouts of depression. In the 1950s, suburban housewife Laura Brown, played by Julianne Moore, compulsively reads "Mrs. Dalloway" to avoid planning a birthday party for a husband who adores her but whom she doesn't love and who provides her with a life she hates. And in modern New York City, Clarissa Vaughan, played by Meryl Streep, is a lesbian trying to plan a party for her ex-husband who is dying from AIDS.

As the film progresses through each woman's day, the connections between the eras become apparent.http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hours/?critic=creamcrop

• Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf

• Julianne Moore as Laura Brown

• Meryl Streep as Clarissa Vaughan

• Stephen Dillane as Leonard Woolf

• Miranda Richardson as Vanessa Bell

• John C. Reilly as Dan Brown

• Ed Harris as Richard Brown

• Allison Janney as Sally Lester

• Toni Collette as Kitty