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The Hours
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As Always, a review of The
Film and The DVD (extras)!
The Film:
The feeling Hollywood seems to have is: if
they release a dreary chick flick with a few top-name stars, it can
be accepted if the film is a dreary chick flick. This was done in 2002 with everyone from Britney Spears (Crossroads)
to Sandra Bullock and Ashley Judd (Divine
Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood), and now, Meryl Streep, Nicole
Kidman, and Julianne Moore. Maybe if this wasn't the tenth (at least) dreary chick flick released this year alone, I'd
feel
better about seeing it...or, maybe not. I think I speak for many guys when I say we have
had it up to our armpits with stories of bad-bad men holding back the
super-duper, full-of-dreams, "faultless" women in their lives.
Whatever.
Which brings us to The Hours;
a film with not one, not two, though three women whose lives
would be totally better if men weren't in them. The film begins with
Virginia Woolf (a prosthetic-nosed Nicole Kidman) committing suicide, because she felt "trapped" in a life with her
husband. Meanwhile, Laura (Julianne Moore) is a bored housewife also
contemplating suicide, who gets waylaid from the deed long enough to have
a passionate kiss with her female neighbor. Not to jump ahead, though the
message here seems to be that bored housewives would be a lot happier with
a lot less men in their lives, and a lot more lesbianism. This
message is driven home by woman #3, Clarissa (Meryl Streep), who is not
suicidal, not a mental case, and is just oh-so-happy-dappy in her life with girlfriend Sally (Allison
Janney). What-ever.
I think the best rule to apply to a
controversial film, is a coining of The Golden Rule. Simply put, write
about others as you would have them write about you. In this story, women
are totally against their hum-drum lives and dullard husbands. Yet what if
the genders were reversed, hmmm? We're to believe these women feel
"trapped," and as such, their suicidal tendencies are perfectly
understandable and irreprehensible. One wonders how this opinion would
change in a sexist world, if it was the men who felt
trapped, only to think of abandoning their families, if not killing
themselves completely. If Virginia, Laura, and Clarissa were Virgil,
Larry, and Clarence, people would look at Larry & Virgil's attempts at
suicide --and willful abandonment of their families-- as being the act of
a total cad. Some find sympathy in Virginia and Laura simply because as
women, they're supposed to be less responsible for their actions than men.
This is a chauvinist perspective. This is also a flawed story.
Consider the moment
Laura kisses her neighbor (Toni Collette). Why would a housewife suddenly,
passionately, kiss her neighbor? The
implication is she kissed her neighbor, full on the lips,
simply because she was a bored housewife, during a moment of emotional
angst. This is not just an insult to
hetero women, though lesbians as well. No, friends, homosexuality isn't
some mere "lark" that you "experiment" with, suddenly, when "bored."
No, heterosexuality isn't something that can be turned off like a switch,
when also bored. This was one DUMB scene.
At least that kissing scene was a short
reprieve from the repetitive theme of this film: suicide. What does the
bored housewife plan? Suicide. What does a popular author want more than
anything? Suicide. How does a man with AIDS spend the last moments of
life? If you guessed "traveling the world and being with
family/friends," you'd be slightly off; he'd rather be ransacking a
room to try to open a window, so he can jump out of it. Does he succeed?
By the time the scene comes around, it will feel immaterial either way.
These are such dreary, depressing caricatures, you'll wonder if anything
that happens in this film really matters.
True, this film does have other
critics raving. Well, sort of. 79% on the ol' Rotten Tomatoes "tomatometer"
is nothing to sneeze your prosthetic nose at, I guess. I still can't get a
strong sense as to WHY such critics are raving, though. Roger Ebert tries
to explain Virginia Woolf's suicidal attitudes, because 1925 was an era when "a woman has
breakfast, buys flowers and prepares to throw a party." I'm sorry;
was there a reason to commit suicide somewhere in there? How many people,
right now in 2002, are busting their gut just to have breakfast on the table?
How many women would love to afford some flowers once in a while...? How
few women have the time, energy OR opportunity to throw a party
these days? If this is the type of "depressing" lifestyle that leads to Nicole Kidman's
character committing suicide, well, boo-freakin'-hoo.
I am not in the mood for humor when
reviewing a film such as this, though what about dripping sarcasm? With
tongue planted firmly in cheek, I
find it very ironic that one of the few male characters of this film wants
nothing more than to force a window open so he can jump out of it and end
his pain. If he was in a theater at the time, he might even get some men
joining him on the way down. What a dreary movie.
The DVD:
Commentaries galore do not a worthwhile rental make. Well, okay; maybe
they do, presuming you want to see the film twice. Said commentaries are
twofold: a crew commentary by director Stephen Daldry and novelist
Michael Cunningham, and a cast commentary by Meryl
Streep, Julianne Moore,
and Nicole Kidman. Yeah, okay; so a commentary by Streep
and Moore and Kidman does sound pretty cool...and it is. You got me there.
You'll forgive me, though, if I'm not too
enthused with any of the extras, all of which are strictly for diehard
lovers of the film. There's a filmmakers introduction, for example, for
anyone who's a fan of those classic SCTV skits, where The Mackenzie
Brothers say something like "Hello, G'day and welcome to our
show." Then there's the obligatory film trailers and four behind the
scenes featurettes: "Three Women" (pretty self-explanatory if
you know the film's story); "The Mind and Times of Virgina Woolf";
"The Lives of Mrs. Dalloway"; and "The Music of The
Hours." I can see how someone who loved the film could go on and on
about these featurettes though for this agnostic viewer: feh.
---Techtite
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