List Price: $9.99 Our Price: $9.99YOU SAVE $0!
Buy it
DVD The Hours (Full Screen Edition)
Delicate and hypnotic, The Hours interweaves three stories with remarkable skill: in the 1920s Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) grapples with her inner demons and slowly works on her novel Mrs. Dalloway; in 1949 housewife Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) feels her own destructive impulses; and in 1999 book editor Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep)--much like the title character of Woolf's novel--prepares to throw a party, in honor of her dearest friend, a seriously ill poet (Ed Harris). Small details reverberate from story to story as a powerhouse cast (including Allison Janney, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Jeff Daniels, John C. Reilly, Stephen Dillane, and Miranda Richardson) gives subtle and beautifully modulated performances. In the hands of director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot), The Hours is almost more a piece of music than a story, and like music, it may move you in unexpected ways. --Bret Fetzer
Yes, I had read a biography of Virginia Woolf, in addition to reading the brilliant but stultifyingly laborious "To the Lighthouse," and I was afraid of this. I do believe Kidman portrayed Woolf with a lot of accuracy. And indeed, this film, with its plethora of Hollywood top shelf stars, is well acted, quite well. But Woolf's character was nobody you would ever want to root for, nor even become interested in, unless, I am afraid, you are still, at present state of growth, a likewise selfish immature person with a little too much time and money on your hands. For that's all that Woolf was, along with having a brilliant mind. She was selfish. And she soon found out that her bohemian rebellion to assuage her selfish cravings was, in fact, merely only a very fleeting fix. Woolf needed to trade places with her servants for a little while--let Woolf do the cooking and the cleaning and the running off to London at the last demanding second on behalf of the mistress of the house for an expensive, non-essential item (as Woolf once did in the movie to her harried servant), and you would suddenly see Woolf's bouts with "insanity" begin to go away. She needed to keep herself more occupied--and AWAY from thoughts of herself. Of course, this is nothing new in the history of artists. Go tell Sylvia Plath, Ian Curtis, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, et al. They too would have all benefitted from having the easy money and the hours of idle time to think and dwell on self-pity parties taken away from them.
So no, Woolf's character, played extremely well by Kidman, was nobody you should be rooting for or even interested in.
The other two anti-heroines in this movie--portrayed likewise extremely well by Meryl Streep and Julia what's-her-face, the one who always seems to keep playing these 1950s Stepford Wife roles of late--these other two heroines are equally selfish and absorbed in feeling sorry for themselves. Oh, woe is me. I've too much time and money on my hands, so all I can do is sit around and dwell on my human condition. Not THE human condition. MY human condition. And how selfish does that sound? Think about it. But stay away from this movie. I now know to stay away from this book, no matter how well-conceived I have heard it is.
Always... The Hours
Rarely does one across a film faithfully adopted from an award-winning and critically praised book - Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer winning novel is competently made into an Oscar winning movie that is truly outstanding. A few important reasons why you should definitely watch the movie (1) brilliant performances, particularly by Nicole Kidman who portrays the afflicted Virginia Woolf, (2) the sheer number of incredible parallels between the lives of the three heroines artfuly sculptured by the director, (3) potentially haunting (and yes, depressing) theme, (4) the incredible score by Phillip Glass, (5) the almost flawless screenplay, (6) some really memorable dialogues on what it means to be alive, and of course, (7) the subtle and earnest tribute to Virginia Woolf.
However, I warn depressed people against watching the movie, much as I would warn children and impressionable minds. I would think that reading 'Mrs. Dalloway' by Woolf and 'The Hours' (which, by the way was the working title of Mrs. Dalloway) will help one really appreciate the movie. But, the movie is, in effect, a different ride from the book, altogether - another reason, why you should read the book too.
Better than the book
This is one of the few films I actually thought was better than the book - strange as it seems, the use of a musical score and the pacing of the screen conveyed the author's points with more grace and congruity.
Salma Hayek makes up for many bad movies with her fierce performance in this sumptuous film. Hayek plays the Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo, whose tempestuous life with her unfaithful husband, muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina), drives the story of Frida. Maverick director Julie Taymor (Titus, the Broadway stage production of The Lion King) pulls out a wealth of gorgeous visuals to capture everything from the horrific bus accident that damaged Kahlo's spine to her and Rivera's trip to New York City, where Rivera's political leanings ruptured a commission from the Rockefeller family. Though the script spends too much time telling us how great Frida's painting is (rather than trusting in the power of the images themselves), Taymor's dynamic energy... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Salma Hayek - Alfred Molina Director(s): Julie Taymor DVD Release Date: Released the 10 June 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.99 Your Price: $15.99YOU SAVE $4!
Buy it
This uniquely beautiful film--from one of the smartest and most idiosyncratic of contemporary directors, Todd Haynes (Safe, Velvet Goldmine)--takes the lush 1950s visual style of so-called women's pictures (particularly those of Douglas Sirk, director of Imitation of Life and Magnificent Obsession) to tell a story that mixes both sexual and racial prejudice. Julianne Moore, an amazing fusion of vulnerability and will power, plays a housewife whose husband (Dennis Quaid) has a secret gay life. When she finds solace in the company of a black gardener (Dennis Haysbert), rumors and peer pressure destroy any chance she has at happiness. It's astonishing how a movie with such a stylized veneer can be so emotionally compelling; the cast and filmmakers have... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Julianne Moore - Dennis Quaid - Dennis Haysbert Director(s): Todd Haynes DVD Release Date: Released the 01 April 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $13.48YOU SAVE $1.5!
Buy it
Winner of the prestigious Golden Palm award at the 2002 Cannes film festival, The Pianist is the film that Roman Polanski was born to direct. A childhood survivor of Nazi-occupied Poland, Polanski was uniquely suited to tell the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and concert pianist (played by Adrien Brody) who witnessed the Nazi invasion of Warsaw, miraculously eluded the Nazi death camps, and survived throughout World War II by hiding among the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto. Unlike any previous dramatization of the Nazi holocaust, The Pianist steadfastly maintains its protagonist's singular point of view, allowing Polanski to create an intimate odyssey on an epic wartime scale, drawing a direct parallel between Szpilman's tenacious, primitive existence and the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Adrien Brody - Thomas Kretschmann - Frank Finlay Director(s): Roman Polanski DVD Release Date: Released the 27 May 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $11.98YOU SAVE $3!
Buy it
Vanessa Redgrave glows from within as the heroine of this superb adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel. As Clarissa Dalloway prepares to host a sumptuous party, her mind wanders back to a summer in her youth, when she was courted by an eager young man--a young man whose much older self will come to the very party she's preparing. Mrs. Dalloway moves fluidly between the past and the present, exploring the shifts in perspective and understanding with an unsentimental but graceful eye. What's most stunning is the remarkable interplay between the younger and older actors, who truly seem to be different versions of the same character (the young Clarissa is played by Natascha McElhone). Beautifully directed by Marleen Gorris (Antonia's Line), the movie also features Rupert Graves... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vanessa Redgrave - Natascha McElhone Director(s): Marleen Gorris DVD Release Date: Released the 25 May 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $9.98 Your Price: $9.98YOU SAVE $0!
Buy it
