The Hours (2002)

'The Hours' is a poignant, melancholy film that makes the audience think long and hard about how we dictate the lives of others, and how they dictate ours. The film follows three women, three stories spanning a century, all connected by a book. Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) is writing the novel 'Mrs Dalloway,' Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) is reading it, and Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep) is living it. The film shows the similarities between the lives of the three women through a series of well-timed shots. This also highlights the differences between them, although it eventually becomes apparent that all three of the women are in some way affected by suicide. The film is quite heavy-going but well worth it. I loved 'The Hours.' It made me cry, it made me think. The performances of Kidman, Moore and Streep were all phenomenal, particularly Kidman who won an Academy Award for her performance as Virginia Woolf. I would recommend this film to anyone, but not as a feel-good film, more a film that makes you look at life differently.