The Hours

After watching this movie, I am left with many things to be impressed with. The direction of the film was good. Even when the movie jumped between the three different characters, it seemed to have a good flow and was not as annoying as I thought it would be. The aspect of the story that most interested me, and befuddled me, was the comparative situations of the three women and how they faced their problems. Virginia deals with serious mental disease that is well documented in the film and is well known about her in general. Woolf's problems were well documented to have began in her childhood when her mother died, she also was a victim of sexual abuse as a girl. Clarissa, the Mrs. Dalloway character, deals with the issue of her friend and former lover dying of AIDS. She is also overwhelmed by trying to plan his party while trying to deal with her emotions. These characters are easy to sympathize with, both for different reasons, but their reasons are equally legitimate. The character I found it impossible to sympathize for was Laura. I really wanted to like her, as Juliane Moore is one of my favorite actors, but it was impossible. What problems does she really have? She may not be content with her life, but we can say that same thing about most characters we find in books and films. By all accounts she has a good husband, a son who clearly loves her, and an all around decent life. The end of the movie sealed it for me, though, when we find out that Laura left her family behind and moved to Canada, showing the ultimate sign of immaturity. She completely failed to face her problems, chosing instead to run away.