THE HOURS (2002)  **

Reviewed 12/31/02

As a variation on and homage to Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway,” three women in three different time periods struggle with their lives and lovers.  Here is a movie in which you can feel the filmmakers’ reverence for their source material, Michael Cunningham’s novel, and that’s a terrible thing as the reverence takes on a solemnity that weighs the whole exercise down into a blackhole of portentousness.  The movie just screams profundity, except it is anything but. The whole thing just tries too hard until the stitching flies apart.  Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore were far superior in film turns earlier in the same year with ADAPTATION and FAR FROM HEAVEN, respectively.  Nicole Kidman, playing Woolf with a false nose, fares best among the three main actresses, and Miranda Richardson shines in a bit part as Woolf’s sister.  Phillip Glass' score is decent if you don't consider that it's a totally unoriginal throwback to his 1982 Glassworks album.