Review

Three women, separated by time, class and geographic location, share the book "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf. The film opens with author Woolf in an idyllic Sussex countryside in the early 1920s. Kidman, who won a Best Actress Oscar as Woolf, offers a studied, controlled exploration of a creative spirit trapped by expectations of reason and conformity, and the best intentions of those who love her. Laura Brown (Moore) enjoys the middle-class bliss of suburban Los Angeles in 1951; yet she seems curiously sad and disassociated, intimidated to distraction by the task of baking a cake. Her eerily prescient son Richie (a superb performance by young Rovello) observes her with understanding beyond his years. And in present-day New York City, Clarissa Vaughan (Streep) is hosting yet another party; this time for her longtime friend and confidant Richard (Harris), whose nickname for her is "Mrs. Dalloway." With children or without, with men or without, these three women share a replication of activities and a communality of emotions and demands that transcend their superficial differences. The film avoids toppling under the weight of the complexity of Michael Cunningham's poetic and sprawling Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by the grace of remarkable performances from the three leads and the superlative supporting cast, and supple, fluid direction. Phillip Glass' hypnotic score works to perfection. In the end, The Hours delivers a thoughtful contemplation of the inner lives of three women who reflect each other's reality and the shared reality of all women.