Best movie of this year hands down!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Unless you want to dive into 'feminist' angst .. There is nothing there that's worth watching ..

It is not exactly a good film. or a masterpiece. or the perfect choice for Oscar. it is not only a remarkable adaptation. because the acting transforms all. the novel, the expectations, the respiration of Michael Cunningham lines, the rhythm, the details. three great actresses are masters of a subtle, impressive, complex transformation of a story who becomes almost magic. axis - a character who guides the life of each movement, who propose new manners to understand the life, who becomes a kind of spirit who has as guest each of the women looking her form of happiness. The Hours remains a revelation at each new view. and that fact is not surprising because it is more than an extraordinary film but a sort of mirror for his public. a film of delicate nuances. and one of refuges for rediscover the meanings of life.

A bravura piece of screen writing by David Hare is the foundation on which this remarkable cinematic edifice is built. It is peopled by actors of the highest quality. Several of its images are truly haunting. Many of its scenes are tremendously powerful.The story concerns lives in different decades linked by Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway. It's essentially a literary idea, based as it is on a book by Michael Cunningham. But Hare, director Stephen Daldry and their colleagues turn it into a poetic study of life and death. It is given urgency and unity by Philip Glass's score.The Hours aims high and mostly achieves what it sets out to do, but there are, perhaps inevitably, a couple of fumbles. A climactic scene between two of its leading actors is presented in a series of ever tighter close-ups, which ends up giving the impression that the characters might not be in the same room. If that was the idea, it was a mistake - we really need to feel them communicating, sharing the space. Also, one of the story strands feels much more contrived than the others, shoe-horned in to make it all work: this is, I'm pretty sure, a problem in the source material which the movie couldn't avoid inheriting.In the final analysis, these are quibbles. To embark on a project as ambitiously multi-layered as this in a commercial movie, and then to realise it as fully as The Hours does, is quite an achievement. Everyone connected with it should be very proud.

This movie, and the timing in which it came out, were just right to make an impact on my life. I was 22 when this was released and came out on VHS. I literally wore out the VHS tape because I watched it so often.I distinctly remember my gut reactions to this movie - especially to Clarissa's story line at the end. I felt that this movie was a truly interesting look at depression. It kind of makes you feel like: "snap out of it" at first. You get 3 different glances at three different female lives and at the beginning of the film it looks like all of them have pretty nice lives. It is also starkly obvious that none of them are happy in their "nice lives." This interests me particularly because the devastation is often pushed on to the depressed by those around them. It is very easy to think, or to say to them: "you have a good life. why can't you be happy?" The movie does not really address this for us. It does not tell us why they cannot be happy and I believe that is because each of these women wonder that a bit themselves - even to the extent of feeling some guilt about it. As each story unfolds it becomes obvious that their happiness or unhappiness is out of their control. Virginia has obviously battled her demons for most of her life and both her and her loved ones are close to the end of what they can bear. The first thing we see is Virginia's suicide, so you are warned very early that this movie is not going to be a gentle ride.Laura Brown was the most frustrating character to me personally. You can tell from the first glance of her that she's depressed. Her poor husband and child that both try so hard to connect with her but just cannot... and I felt so deeply for her little boy. It is obvious he knows something is wrong but also that he cannot fix it for her. It's a hard situation to watch. It's so important, though. Having a wonderful husband, children, a nice home... none of these things guarantee happiness.Clarissa is the character I sympathize with. She is longing for days past and is weighed down by her past - the things she she wishes she could return to and the opportunities she feels she missed. What I see as the watcher, though, is that maybe her expectations for herself and her life were just a little too high. I think this is an emotional place where many women find themselves.Here's my major spoiler - just a warning.The scene in which Richard commits suicide is so perfectly done. Meryl Streep's expression will stay with me forever. My husband accidentally sat down for the last half of of this movie a few days ago and I warned him: the end get rough. He just looked at me like that was silly. But when the end came, he was speechless. lol Many movies that touch on depression almost make my depression worse but this movie never has. I feel amazingly understood by the way this movie was handled.End game, it is a very well done movie. It's probably not the type of movie you want to show at a party, and I wouldn't say it's a really relaxing watch, but if you want to understand depression or want to feel that someone understands yours, hopefully this movie will help you too.