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The Hours

PG-13 Released Dec 27, 2002 1h 54m Drama List
80% Tomatometer 196 Reviews 84% Popcornmeter 50,000+ Ratings
"The Hours" is the story of three women searching for more potent, meaningful lives. Each is alive at a different time and place, all are linked by their yearnings and their fears. Their stories intertwine, and finally come together in a surprising, transcendent moment of shared recognition.
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The Hours

The Hours

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Critics Consensus

The movie may be a downer, but it packs an emotional wallop. Some fine acting on display here.

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Critics Reviews

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Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya Autostraddle Even as it jumps between 20th century decades, The Hours is intensely, almost upsettingly linear. A lot like life. Mar 20, 2024 Full Review Charlotte O'Sullivan Independent (UK) It's a must-see. Mainstream epics routinely privilege the father-son bond... In The Hours, patriarchs barely figure, and the only phallic weapon on display is Virginia's pen. Nov 15, 2017 Full Review Nell Minow Common Sense Media Smart, thoughtful movie for older teens and up. Rated: 5/5 Dec 28, 2010 Full Review Carla Monfort Espinof Few movies depict depression as well, it's subtle and truthful, without overloading it dramatically even though it touches upon suicide and other complicated subjects... [Full review in Spanish] Rated: 4/5 Aug 15, 2022 Full Review David Reddish Queerty Loaded with rich dialogue, magnificent performances and a delicate score by Philip Glass, The Hours reminds us how movies can touch and reflect our lives. For the characters that embrace love and truth, life offers joy and hope. Rated: 4/4 Mar 20, 2022 Full Review David Walsh World Socialist Web Site Self-involved and self-important to a dangerously high degree ... Feb 16, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Ashley M The Hours is almost a relic of a bygone era of premium cinema. The story is intense, almost awful, as are some of the main characters, but the film itself is a thing of beauty and is thus art. I miss these films. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/20/24 Full Review Jayne H absolutely a brilliant thought provoking film! acting was unbelievable, highly recommend! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/14/24 Full Review A R Great actors (many) at the top of their game. A beautifully written, intelligent, original and sensitive screenplay. Amazing editing. Beautiful photography. The people that gave bad reviews don't know what cinema is, all they know is the usual Hollywood formula. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/30/24 Full Review Irene M Don't think I ever saw this before, although the scenes of Julianne Moore baking a cake seem really familiar. Watched after just finishing reading "Mrs Dalloway". Who *wasn't* in this cast? Although I really enjoyed it, I could see why it may not have been popular at the time...the opening scenes cut amongst the different time periods so quicky one could easily lose viewers. I wouldn't call it a bio pic of Virginia Woolf, but I did enjoy the connection between the first and the second, and the second and the third. Fine acting! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/18/24 Full Review Luis M. D In its pure form and style, "The Hours" boasts an effective cinematography with excellent performances. But at the level of content, things are not that simple, sadly. The movie succumbs to the postmodern tendency - quite common among artists and culture critics - to romanticize mental illness to the point of equating madness with freedom and normalcy with unfreedom. The character of Virginia Wool (Nicole Kidman) justifies her own suicide as something necessary “in order that the rest of us should value life more." And the character of Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) justifies the abandonment of her children – one of them who later commits suicide - as a choice of life over death. The movie does not merely present these facts to us as tragic deviations of human behavior – it normalizes them and even celebrates them as the ultimate consequence of the exercise of human freedom. So, I must be frank. I appreciate the movie's own artistic merits but find its content deeply controversial and mostly objectionable, and this should also count in the final rating. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 06/16/24 Full Review Andrew B Unbelievably pretentious and utterly baffling the critical praise it received at the time of its release. I put it down to there being virtually no intellectually stimulating/valuable American movies being made at the time. In a world of super hero Hollywood blockbusters, this must have seemed like a breath of fresh air to more discerning filmgoers. Alas now I believe it needs to be rewatched and re-reviewed. The overacting, the offensively bad nosejob on Kidman as Woolf, the absolute banality of it all. 2.5 stars is about right, if not generous. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 05/26/24 Full Review Read all reviews
The Hours

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis "The Hours" is the story of three women searching for more potent, meaningful lives. Each is alive at a different time and place, all are linked by their yearnings and their fears. Their stories intertwine, and finally come together in a surprising, transcendent moment of shared recognition.
Director
Stephen Daldry
Producer
Scott Rudin
Screenwriter
Michael Cunningham, David Hare
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
Production Co
Miramax Films, Paramount Pictures
Rating
PG-13 (Mature Thematic Elements|Brief Language|Some Disturbing Images)
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 27, 2002, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 1, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA)
$41.6M
Runtime
1h 54m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby SR, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Dolby Stereo
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