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The Movie Mystic | by Stephen
Simon
The Hours (113 minutes, PG-13)
It has been a long time since I have felt so moved by a film as I was while watching
The Hours. Only Far from Heaven came close in 2002, and The Hours had a much more
powerful and emotional impact on me. The film is eerie, disturbing, exhilarating,
unsettling, totally engrossing, and is also brilliantly written, photographed, scored,
acted and directed.
The Hours tells the interlocking story of three women in different decades. Nicole
Kidman plays Virginia Woolf in the 1920s, Julianne Moore plays a woman in the 1950s
whose life is unraveling as she reads Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway, and Meryl Streep
plays a modern-day woman whose life is deeply affected by both of the other two women.
The device that connects their lives is so beautifully and brilliantly conceived
and executed that I don't want to say anything more about the plot here.
Nicole Kidman's performance is hauntingly brilliant and definitively marks her evolution
from being considered a beautiful woman who can act -- to being one of the most accomplished
and powerful actresses in film today. Through the use of an extraordinary achievement
in prosthetic makeup, Kidman is almost unrecognizable as she literally inhabits the
soul of the tortured Virginia Woolf. Although Kidman is on-screen for only a few
scenes, the depth, pathos and heartache that she brings to her character are, for
me, comparable to Diane Lane's career performance in Unfaithful and Julianne Moore's
performance in Far from Heaven (throw in Salma Hayek's bravura depiction of Frida
and this has been one amazing year for actresses!). Moore is wonderful in another
'50s portrayal in The Hours (two in one year...hmmmm?) and Streep is her usual extraordinary
self -- as is the entire cast.
Both Stephen Dillane as Woolf's husband and Ed Harris as Streep's dear friend give
performances worthy of Academy Award recognition. The film is directed with great
style and intelligence by Stephen Daldry, and Philip Glass has composed one of the
most memorable and achingly beautiful film scores since The Piano. In short, this
is a first-class production all the way through and will deservedly be one of the
strongest Oscar candidates in most major categories.
As Spiritual Cinema, it completes for me (with Frida and Far from Heaven) the Trilogy
in 2002's Holiday Season that celebrates both the ascension of feminine energy and
our evolution from the Male Age of Pisces into the Female Age of Aquarius. And it's
about time, yes? Resonant causation is appearing in greater intensity, and impact
causation is being challenged like never before. Old paradigms die hard, yes, but
die they indeed do -- and this new Aquarian Age is indeed dawning despite so much
evidence to the contrary in the so-called "mainstream" world.
While I can't really elaborate without divulging more of The Hours than is appropriate
here, the internal structure of the progressive attitudes of all three women in the
film up through the decades reflect this amazing evolution, as well. When Meryl Streep
appears in the penultimate scene to merely turn off some lights in her apartment,
we have a sense that a major transformation has taken place.
As the title of The Hours refers, in part, to the time we spend in reflection after
the occurrence of a particular event in our lives, so has this film fascinated and
affected me for these few weeks since I first saw it on New Year's Eve. After playing
in exclusive runs, it opened in mid-January in cities across the United States and
will get more exposure after it receives the several Academy Award nominations that
I believe it will deservedly receive. If it hasn't opened near you yet -- it might
soon. As it is a complex film that may stir emotions and musings within you, it's
a great movie to see with other members of your Spiritual Cinema Community.
The Hours is a deeply moving, emotionally challenging ,and often brooding film that
may very well unsettle some viewers. With all that in mind, I heartily recommend
it to you as a film for adults who are in the mood for an absorbing and haunting
literary evening at the movies.
MovieMystic Chakra Rating for The Hours:
Chakra 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Rating 5 5 4 5 5 5 5
A full explanation of this Chakra Rating system is available at MysticalMovies.com.
NEXT MONTH: Spiritual Cinema's Most Memorable 5 of 2002!
Stephen Simon has produced such films as Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May
Come. His book The Force is With You: Mystical Movie Messages That Inspire Our Lives,
published by Walsch Books/Hampton Roads, is now available. For more information,
visit MysticalMovies.com. Stephen welcomes your comments by e-mail: Stephen @MysticalMovies.com
Copyright (c) 2003 Stephen Simon
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