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Rating:
Boasting all of the elements of a prestigious Hollywood production, The Hours (2002) is that rarity of rarities: a thoughtful studio movie. Adapted from Michael Cunningham's "unadaptable" Pulitzer prize winner, David Hare's literate screenplay succeeds in translating Cunningham's interior-driven novel about a day in the lives of three different women into engaging cinema. Deftly interweaving the stories of writer Virginia Woolf as she struggles to create her 1925 masterpiece -Mrs. Dalloway; 1951 reader Laura Brown, who finds solace in Woolf's book; and 2001 editor and Mrs. Dalloway-esque party planner Clarissa, director Stephen Daldry reveals the underlying connections between the disparate women as each realizes that a life of self-abnegation -- whether as mother, wife, patient, or friend -- doesn't guarantee happiness. Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman play their complex, not always sympathetic roles with delicacy and gusto; Kidman, in particular, is a well-costumed revelation as the brilliant, wry, and disturbed Woolf. Though Ed Harris overplays the poetry in his AIDS-stricken scribe, the rest of the supporting cast superbly complements the lead trio. Even Philip Glass's score of his love 'em-or-hate 'em signature triplets and repetitions neatly underpins The Hours' thematic and emotional structure. Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

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