I had been told that if I wanted to see acting, I should see The Hours.
How true. The acting in this movie is absolutely astonishing. Nicole Kidman does an absolutely amazing job at portraying Virginia Woolf. Every quirk was perfected. I really don't have adequate words to describe her.
Meryl Streep was breath-taking as usual. A seemless performance.
Ed Harris blew me away. Even though his screen time was short, it was sweet. Or bitter, if you will. I had no idea he was up for that caliber of performance, but he brought tears to my eyes and opened new paths in my mind simultaneously.
Even the little kid - I thought he did a really good job. And not just a good job for a little kid- I mean he was really, really good.
The acting in this movie was about the best I've seen for years. Too bad it takes more than acting to make a good film.
To accomodate such a talented cast, there needs to be an equally compelling story. Unfortunately, this was not the case with The Hours. The whole movie was spent showing the connections between the three time periods. As long as it was, it did what could/should have been done in an introduction.
And no- I'm not missing the whole point. I understand the theme of "the hours". I understand that the pace was part of the artistic direction. I understand the point that was trying to be made - I just thought that a poor job was done at making it.
And I could nitpick forever on the AWFUL continuity problems throughout the whole film. There's too many to list.
Finally- there was no flow. No touch of reality. All the actors' performances seemed like they were shot seperately and then pasted together.
I know that when working with actors, you do whatever it takes to get a certain performance - but you can't forget that they are only secondary. The actor is just a tool used to create something much larger - much more profound.
So to wrap it up - The Hours is an acting show. not a movie. It ended up being a cheap chick flick for art students. Art students who need to drop whatever it is they're nailing to a tree in central park and go see a good jewel heist movie.
anyway- that's my two cents.
