Now I am wondering -why- I wasted my time on it! The performances were all excellent, btw–I don’t have any quarrels with them (I certainly didn’t recognize Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolfe), but … well, the movie was just so depressing on many levels. Was Virginia Woolfe as ill as depicted in the movie? Did she commit suicide eventually? Why don’t we find out what happened to Richard’s sister, other than she’s dead already? I’ve heard other women express that they have felt quite similar to the women in the movie, and I can understand even those sorts of feelings, but to be honest, I’ve never experienced depression to that level. And I guess at the bottom of it all is that I really didn’t enjoy a movie about it.
No, I didn’t care for it either. I don’t know much about Woolf…but the friends I saw it with didn’t like the movie any more than I did. The way Ed Harris dies is totally predictable, for one thing.
I had absolutely no sympathy for Julianne Moore’s character. She’s kinda unhappy, so her solution is to abandon her kids and hubby right after having a baby and then flee to Canada? Huh?
Why did Woolf kiss her own sister so passionately? What was up with that?
Two hours of neurotic, miserable, suicidal and–you said it–depressing people. Yeck.
Thanks for the info, kungfolola–I don’t think I’ve ever read any Virginia Woolf (and apologies for mis-spelling her name!) nor do I know much about her.
Hey Viva! thanks for the birthday wishes. I was going to mention the kiss between Virginia and Vanessa, but didn’t know how to broach it tactfully. It was a passionate kiss, particularly between sisters–but the kiss that Julianne Moore’s character laid on her friend was just as passionate–and just as bizarre from my viewpoint. I didn’t have sympathy for that character either. I think the only character I did feel anything for was Virginia Woolf. And maybe Meryl Streep’s character (even though she was very bossy).
Maybe you should read this thread and compare and contrast the feelings that this real live poster is expierencing in her life to those of the Julianne Moore character.
Yes the movie is depressing but so is life sometimes. I don’t think there was any thing in the advertising that would possibly indicate that this was some sort of ‘feel good’ movie.
The film was well written, expertly acted, brillantly edited, costumed perfectly, and masterfully directed. IMHO it far more deserved the best picture Oscar than Chicago.
I know Nicole Kidman said in an interview that she saw the kiss as Virginia attempting to sort of draw some of the life and spirit from her happier, more vibrant sister into herself.
I’d say yes, she was. They didn’t make up the sexual ambiguity thing either, if you’re curious; she apparently wasn’t ‘into’ her husband and did have affairs with people of both sexes. And she did committ suicide in the manner depicted in the film.
Thanks all for all the input and information thus far. I wanted to see the movie for the actors’ performances, which were excellent. I just ended up not liking the movie. I am considering reading some of Virginia Woolf, particularly Mrs. Dalhousie.
Thanks again all. And apologies to Kung fu lola for mis-spelling your name earlier!
“Now I am wondering -why- I wasted my time on it!”
Yep. Same here. As far as relating to it, why should you have to have been through such self-indulgent, self-important fugues to enjoy a movie? Just because a few people think that much of themselves and so little of anyone else hardly means most people can or should relate to it.
“I had absolutely no sympathy for Julianne Moore’s character. She’s kinda unhappy, so her solution is to abandon her kids and hubby right after having a baby and then flee to Canada? Huh?”
Agreed.
“Why did Woolf kiss her own sister so passionately? What was up with that?”
Read up on ol’ Virginia. It’s been rumoured (and apparently pretty subtantiated) forever that there was an incestuous relationship between her sister and herself. NOT that there’s anything wrong with that
“The film was well written, expertly acted, brillantly edited, costumed perfectly, and masterfully directed.”
And boring as hell.
“IMHO it far more deserved the best picture Oscar than Chicago.”
Probably Neither would have been my pick for anything remotely approaching best flick of the year; quite the opposite. It’s like comparing mud with dog shit heh heh.
Kinda unhappy? She was suffering from clinical depression (that scene in the bathroom should be familar to anyone who’s had to deal with that illness), and came thisclose to killing herself.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, and I only saw it once (and I haven’t read the book), so I could be very wrong, but my interpretation was that she was a repressed lesbian at a time when women weren’t supposed to be anything but happy wives and moms and homemakers. Her husband was a nice guy, but she didn’t love him. Her son was (seemed) wise beyond his years and probably creeped her out a little bit. She was sure that they would be better off without her. In her mind, in her circumstances, with her depression, it was leave or kill herself.
It was an awful choice she had to make.
Either choice would hurt her family terribly, and either choice would have been seen as selfish. She left to save her own life. Would anyone who would condemn her think she should have committed suicide?
Some might say she should have just dealt with it, but even if she could have, even without the depression, that would be sentencing her to a lifetime of misery and false happiness. More likely, the “happy home” would have come unraveled sooner or later.
I’m vague on the details, but I gathered that she ended up in Canada and lived with a female partner. She knew how she was perceived, as selfish and hateful, and it seemed to weigh heavily on her, even though she’d made peace with her choice.
I liked the movie very much, but I too like depressing movies.
Oh my, I’ve just made a bigger mess for myself here! I don’t know the name of the V. Woolf book that was at the heart of The Hours; I can only plead that my memory just is not what it used to be. At least it began with a D, right?!
I would like to add this, coming from personal experience–my Dad is gay but didn’t “come out” until I was in my 20s. He’s never discussed with me what it was like to live repressing his true feelings for so many years, but he still loved his children and even loved his wife (though they did divorce after he came out). And he stayed in the marriage until the youngest children were in HS. I can only imagine, though, what it was like for him. He didn’t leave or commit suicide though.
I don’t mind a depressing movie. I’ve recommended Requiem for a Dream to other viewers, and it’s one of the bleakest movies I’ve ever seen. But I didn’t have problem with it like I had with this one.
I’ve never seen The Hours because I read the book and it was wonderful and amazing and so damn depressing that I just can’t bring myself to see the movie until I’m in the right mood for a Great Big Downer, which, let’s face it, will probably be never.
But I will say that a person who didn’t know who Virginia Woolf was and hasn’t read Mrs. Dalloway will probably only be taking away half of the meaning of the book (or movie). It makes a lot more sense on a lot of levels (including lesbianism, depression, and a life made of minutes or hours) if you’ve read Mrs. D.
I had read the book and thought it was one of the best I’d ever read. I don’t remember the book as being as completely depressing as the movie.
This happened Angela’s Ashes, too. I enjoyed the book and thought it had sad parts, but had an amusing, hopeful tone overall. The movie was very depressing.
Anyway, when I read the book, I was just sad for Julianne Moore’s character. She was not cut out to be a housewife and mother in an era where that was what you had to be. I understood why she left her children and I didn’t feel impatient with her and want her to “just snap out of it” and be a responsible adult. I felt that way when I saw the movie, though.
Anyway, I thought the movie was good, but maybe missing some of the “layers” the book had…that’s often the case.
Neither would have been my pick for anything remotely approaching best flick of the year; quite the opposite. It’s like comparing mud with dog shit heh heh.