The Hours

In THE HOURS, director Stephen Daldry and screenwriter David Hare masterfully adapt Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. Inspired by Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, the story asserts the immeasurable significance of a single day in the lives of three women. Suffocating in Richmond, England, 1923: Writer Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman in an Academy Award-winning performance) has been sent to the country to regain her health after two failed attempts at suicide. Amidst concerned family and friends, she contemplates the fate of her title character and of herself. Captive in Los Angeles, California, 1951: Housewife Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) reluctantly tears herself away from her copy of Mrs. Dalloway to fulfill her household duties. As she cares for her son and bakes a cake for her husband, she dreams of death. Disappearing in New York, New York, 2001: Editor Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep), affectionately called Mrs. Dalloway, cheerfully prepares for a party in honor of ailing writer, friend, and former lover Robert (Ed Harris). Yet, her enthusiasm cannot mask her longing for forgotten happiness. Nominated for nine Academy Awards in 2003, THE HOURS seamlessly interweaves these three narratives into a painfully beautiful film about the choice between life and death. – E.J.B.