|
...Here's a movie
with a season's worth of inspired performances
turned in by one ensemble cast.
...The
Hours is an exquisitely-made, deeply
moving drama that interweaves three vignettes
about three women set in three different places
and periods--a London suburb in the twenties,
Los Angeles in the fifties, and Manhattan today.
...What they have
in common is a thematic link to Mrs. Dalloway,
the novel by Virginia Woolf (who is one of the
three protagonists, and is played by the almost
unrecognizable Nicole Kidman, sporting a prosthetic
nose).
...And they are
tied together in a way best discovered with
no advance warning.
...The expert cast
of this remarkable triptych--which is beautifully
photographed, edited, and scored--also includes
Julianne Moore, Ed Harris, Jeff Daniels, Toni
Collette, John C. Reilly, Miranda Richardson,
Stephen Dillane, Claire Danes, Allison Janney--and,
as a first among equals, Meryl Streep.
...Ms. Streep is
breathtakingly brilliant--moving decades of
feelings and insights across her face in a flash,
a flutter, a gesture, or a word--here playing
one of three suffocatingly depressed and confused
women (along with Kidman and Moore) who define
desperate unhappiness..
...The rest of
this delicate and resonant film--surehandedly
directed by Stephen Daldry (the smashing Billy
Elliot) from David Hare's tricky,
lyrical screenplay based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning
1998 novel by Michael Cunningham--should prove
richly rewarding for viewers who do not raise
their hand in answer to the question: Who's
afraid of Virginia Woolf?
...As opposed to
just plain rewarding for those who do.
...This is an intricately
structured, intellectually challenging, quietly
but highly charged exploration of the road not
taken--as was Mrs. Dalloway, by the way--with
enough demons and epiphanies to keep a big,
ambitious cast happy.
...To say nothing
of us.
...We'll cry Woolf
by posting all 4 stars
out of 4 for one of the year's very best films.
...If you cherish
great acting, you may want to make The
Hours...yours.
_____________________________________________
...Here are three
top-tier actresses in one movie, each bringing
to the table a resume dotted with outstanding
work:
MERYL STREEP
...The two-time
Oscar winner's last three nominations for Best
Actress were for three exceptional dramas:
...Music
of the Heart (1999), as a devoted
real-life violin teacher in an East Harlem public
school...
...One
True Thing (1998), as the cancer-stricken
mother of Renee Zellweger...
...And Bridges
of Madison County (1995), bringing
the popular romance novel movie to life as a
lonely, adulterous wife opposite her co-star,
star-crossed lover, and director, Clint Eastwood.
JULIANNE MOORE
...Working in both
independent films and studio movies, Julianne
Moore has quickly become a fixture on the Oscar-nod
speculation circuit:
...Boogie
Nights (1997) brings her a Best Supporting
Actress nomination for her porno director's
leading lady...
...The romantic
drama, The End of the
Affair (1999) earns her another nomination
for Best Supporting Actress for her withdrawing
lover opposite Ralph Fiennes...
...And in the horror
sequel, Hannibal
(2001), she succeeds and replaces Oscar winner
Jodie Foster and more than holds her own opposite
returning Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins.
NICOLE
KIDMAN
...Aussie Nicole
Kidman has emerged impressively as an A-list
American movie star:
...In late director
Stanley Kubrick's fascinating psychological
drama, Eyes Wide Shut
(1999), she stars opposite superstar Tom Cruise
(her husband at the time) as the flirtatious
wife of a Manhattan physician...
...In the adventurous
musical, Moulin Rouge
(2001), she lights up the screen as a performing
Paris courtesan, earning an Oscar nomination
for Best Actress in the bargain...
...And in the spooky
supernatural suspense drama, The
Others (2001), she is hauntingly
effective as the protective mother of two.
|
