Film Review:
I was over at my friend Emma's yesterday and we watched "The Hours" - she is a drama teacher and she had some great insights into the brilliant performances in this film, it was great watching it with her. First up, I adored this film, I had seen it quite a few times before but I never ever tire of watching the acting tour de force that is this film.
First up, Nicole Kidman, she obviously won the Oscar for this film - she stole it from Julianne who deserved it for Far From Heaven - and she is very good as Virginia Woolf. She is very understated and controlled and even without the fake nose was very convincing. The intense sadness and the feeling of being trapped is so apparant in her performance and Stephen Dillane is brilliant when opposite Kidman, the scene at the train station where he realises that there is nothing he can do to make her feel better and nothing he can do to take away the ever growing madness. The saddest scene I think is when the two are sitting talking at night by the crackling fire about her writing. It is one of the few scenes where you see them as a couple and doing something that is very normal and everyday and I think that really adds a sense of pathos.
The other big performance is Meryl Streep who is simply brilliant in this film. Her unconventional love story with Richard is so believable and real. I love how it slowly shows you that Clarissa isn't some noble woman looking after the dying Richard and being a good friend, but she is a woman who cannot move on from the happiness she felt during her love affair with Richard and is keeping him in her life, keeping him alive to keep her alive. The performance is just stunning. Jeff Daniels also deserves a mention for his seriously creepy performance as Lewis, the only person to know how Clarissa feels but he was strong enough to walk away from Richard because of what Richard's relationship with his mother did to him. He gives Clarissa hope but sadly he is getting it on with a young student - could that ever be something to make you happy? - so Clarissa is the lucky one, she has Sally and Julia and just has to embrace it and Richard finally redeems himself when he sees she cannot let go, so he kills himself. Seriously depressing on the surface, but underneath, oh there is just so much hope in there!
Before I get on to my special lady, few other important things to mention. First, the brilliant way in which the stories were linked - the eggs, the book reading - and how we always spent just enough time with each of the three ladies. Phillip Glass produced a chilling score that is well worth buying or downloading, fits the film perfectly. And with a cast like that, everyone would think there could be no way every actor gets their "moment" but they DO. Every character has their showcase moment, small or epic, but everyone gets it and I liked that the brilliant acting talent were not wasted.
A stunning film!
Top Julianne Moment:
Now this is a tough one!! I kept asking Emma for stand out moments and she kept making noises that were clearly admiration for Julianne's performance. A close second is the harrowing moment when she leaves little Richie and drives away when he is screaming and crying. So cold and desperate and underplayed. But my favourite has to be the final scene where she appears as the old Laura Brown and explains her choices in life and you can see her regret outweighed by the knowledge she made the right decision or she would have been dead. When Claire Danes' Julia hugs her, it just makes me tear up, I'm quite tearful thinking about it just now. How this woman was not given as Oscar for that performance is a crime. Just brilliant!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNF-uXP_CoU&feature=related
Here is the scene here if you want to watch it again.
Julianne Review:
Where do I even start when it comes to Julianne in this film. Her performance as Laura Brown is just an acting masterclass. A woman who has been railroaded by the time into a marriage with a perfect man and a perfect family but feels trapped and cannot escape. The way she looks as if all the life has been sucked out of her is heartbreaking, she looks like a broken woman as she goes about her daily routine. Emma told me that the best thing about the performance in the early scenes was how little she had to say, how every word she did say seemed forced and genuinely difficult, so this shows us that what she does say is not important, not real, not ture, but it is what she doesn't say that is really interesting, honest, true. A woman who is desperate to escape but cannot find the courage to leave her family and the man who loves her so, so much. She should be the most hateful character - we see the devestating effect her decision has on her some Richard - so should she not be a character the audience hate with venom? I defy anyone watching the film not to feel sympathy for Laura Brown, because of Julianne's performance, you long for her to escape, you will for her to escape, even though, like her, you know that it is wrong. Then the scene at the end where she explains she has outlived her entire family and she still does not regret her decision, it's just beyond powerful, the conviction and pathos in her voice is just stunning, the mere thought of it tells anyone just what a talented actress this woman is. I can only hope she knows it herself.
You have no idea how much this film and in particular Julianne's performance made me think. I just cannot get it out of my head. I suppose now I've started this blog that maybe I think about my Julianne films differently now, or actually maybe I don't and I've always thought about them that way. I think I get the importance of happiness and how we always long to find it, but I think what I learned from it is that everyone has their own type of happiness. You feel you have to meet what everyone else deems the standard definition of "happinees" but what is your idea of being happy is not what other people think of as happy. It would take a very strong character to understand that and certainly an even stronger character to go and get it. I always talk about my relationship on here - think it would be over if he ever knew that - but I've been thinking a lot about the idea of happiness and whether I am happy or whether I just feel I have all the components and I SHOULD be happy. A lot of my friends think he's wonderful and I should be embrace it and never let go, but am I happy? I shouldn't have, but I had dinner with my ex this week and he was the first person I'd say I loved, he really is just one of those special people I don't think you meet very often. I would have properly spent the rest of my life with him, but alas, it was not to be. Anyway, dinner was good, even managed two glasses of red wine and all the way through and all the way home afterwards I realise that during those three hours or so, I felt alive, yup, alive is the best word I can use to describe it. I realise I may sound mental and that I think Im now directly quoting from Julianne films but I honestly did. It was easy, it was enjoyable and it was alive, the evening I'm talking about and I loved every minute of it. I kept wondering what the point had been of the evening, why would you go and have dinner with your ex-boyfriend, but maybe that was my moment to realise what MY idea of happiness it, what kind of person or what feelings make me happy. I think I have a good idea of happiness from my point of view, I think I know what it is I'm looking for. Companionship. I think that's the answer, someone you want to spend a lot of time with, someone that makes doing the things you love doing even better and someone who you feel comfortable with. Is that what I have just now? Mmmm, I'll need to think about that one, but I'm pretty sure I already know the answer to it. The thing that holds me back is lonliness, I cannot think of anything worse and that is what is holds me back and that is what frightens me.
I think about Laura Brown and I just wonder how many Laura Browns there are out there - obviously not to the same degree - but think they have everything they want, or everything they should want and it still doesn't make them happy. I just think I'm looking for that person that makes me feel alive, I don't want to be Laura Brown. I realise because I am in a relationship that I must sound like a horrible person and maybe you may think I don't deserve to be happy.
Obviously, in my dreams, Julianne reads this and then decides to get in touch and says "I know the perfect guy for you..." (that's a quote by the way, can anyone guess the film?) and then I live happily ever after and I am content. Just like Laura Brown was when she caught the bus to canada and started her little job in the library. But sadly I'm well aware that Julianne doesn't even know that I exist but hey, dreaming can make you happy too!
If you have not seen "The Hours" ever or in a while then I urge you to settle down on your sofa and get seriously comfy and then watch an utter acting masterclass. You will not be disappointed. Granted you may not go to bed with a smile on your face afterwards, or hang on, wait, maybe you will.....
Enjoy!
Maybe the trailer will convince you...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMErdpA804Y
This movie, without a doubt, is one of JM top performances. My perception of this movie, and JM's character in particular, changed with time. I guess it is a testament of the complexity of the movie and the Laura Brown character. The initial reaction for people is of hatred of Laura Brown because her decision to leave her family is a complex one. A lot has to do with gender roles, and the idea that she had to set aside her happiness and, instead, take care of her son and husband. That was my initial reaction, but after thinking about it (and reading your post), we often forget that Laura was probably clinically depress, and truly was not able to take her of her family (or herself for that matter). We also forget that it was not an easy choice and not one that came on a whim because she felt unhappy one day. The more you think about it, the more you understand her actions. Another important point is the concept of 'happiness'. I saw it, in this case, as other people definition of happiness being imposed on Laura (ei. happiness in her case should be taking care of her family). I think what this movie shows is that ultimately, you have to define your own happiness regardless of what other people think.
ReplyDeleteKidman, Streep, and Moore were simply fantastic, and this was a brilliant film in all it's manifestations. I would love to see all three actress work together again.