|
 Movie
B |
Video B+ | Audio
B+
| Extras B+
Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman, Ed
Harris, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Jeff Daniels, Stephen Dillane
director Stephen Daldry
Paramount & Miramax Films (Paramount Home Entertainment)
2002 | Drama | PG-13 | 114 minutes
Region 1 | DVD-9
anamorphic
widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio
| Dolby Digital 5.1
Summary: The Hours is a rich drama
about the last days of the life of the famous writer Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) and two
other women, all at different time periods. Virginia Woolf suffers from
great physical pain and mental anguish, and although she has a loving and
understanding husband, she seeks a way out of her miserable life
altogether.
Laura Brown (Julianne
Moore) is an expectant mother of her second child. She is a
homemaker with a nice house in a nice suburb, but her mundane and routine
life is too much for her. Reading one of Virginia Woolf's novels,
Mrs. Dalloway, she considers a way out also.
Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl
Streep) is a modern day hostess. She takes care of the terminally
ill Richard Brown (Ed Harris), an established artist and son of Laura Brown.
She seeks meaning in her life as her friend threatens to end his own life.
The Hours is a
powerful drama with deep, moving performances by Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore,
and Ed Harris. Because of the superb acting, I found the film very
depressing. So as a drama, it succeeded in moving my emotions.
But as a film, I was too depressed to really enjoy the film. If you are
searching for an emotionally rich film and don't mind the heavy and dreary
subject matter of suicide, The Hours may be your movie.
Despite the superb acting performances and a great musical score by
composer Philip Glass, I found
the subject matter of the three plots too depressing to truly enjoy.
Special Features: Paramount Home
Entertainment seems to be catching up with the other studios when it comes
to the quality and quantity of its DVD release's bonus features.
Bonus features include: filmmaker's Introduction;
audio commentary by director Stephen Daldry and novelist Michael
Cunningham; audio commentary by Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and Julianne
Moore; "Three Women" featurette; "The Mind and Times of Virginia Woolf"
featurette (scholars discuss the life of Virginia Woolf); "The Music of
The Hours" featurette with composer Philip Glass (this is a
delightful segment); "The Lives of Mrs.
Dalloway" featurette; theatrical trailer; sneak peek of
How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days
DVD released on 6/24/2003 | Reviewed 8/12/2003
List $29.99 | online $19.46
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Additional Notes: Unless we specify otherwise, the
video and audio quality are very good when their grades are "A-"
or better. Only the highest number of channels of surround sound
format is listed (e.g., Dolby Digital 5.1). If there are both Dolby
Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, then both are listed. All
DVD-Video discs are backwards compatible with stereo-only playback
systems.
Let us know what you think about this DVD review, write to us at
Editor@TimeForDVD.com.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-NS725P progressive scan DVD player, Sony
KP-65WV600 65" rear projection HDTV-monitor (16:9 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES STR-V444ES A/V receiver, four
B&W CDM 9NTs as left/right main speakers
and left/right surrounds, B&W CDM CNT center channel speaker, Monster Cable
ULT V1000 Ultra Series THX component video cable, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable
Interlink 400 MKII interconnects, Monster Cable
Original speaker cables in bi-wire configuration with Monster Cable twist-on gold-plated banana plug
connectors, Lovan Sovereign T HiFi audio
rack, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
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