The Hours
The topic of suicide isn’t something to be approached lightly, so I suppose it’s fitting that The Hours is anything but light. It tells the story of three women leading parallel lives, separated by almost seventy years. Each of them struggles with her own demons; Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) fights the monotony of a suburban existence in 1923 England; Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) squirms under the responsibilities of homemaking and parenthood in 1951 Los Angeles; and Clarissa “Mrs. Dalloway” Vaughan (Meryl Streep) wrestles feelings she still has for her friend, poet Richard Brown (Ed Harris), despite both of them more recently being in homosexual relationships. The film questions what exactly people like these, who are so discontented with their lot in life that they’re each tempted to end it entirely, are expected to do with all “the hours” remaining in their miserable lives.
The plot structure of The Hours was a parallel story line, with three corresponding parallel characters’ stories occurring simultaneously although separated by decades, which suggests the universality of the theme. And, just like some other parallel plot structures, the various stories overlapped and came together, mostly at the end. For example, Laura Brown in 1951 reads Virginia Woolf’s book Mrs. Dalloway from 1923, which has a profound effect on the progression of her story - indeed, it gets it moving in the first place. Also, Laura Brown’s son, Richard, is a major character in the life of Clarissa Vaughan, and Laura herself even makes an appearance in 2001 after Richard’s suicide. (For the sake of Virginia Woolf, I would like to be able to say that The Hours fit a “stream of consciousness” plot structure, but it didn’t. Pity.)
The exposition of the film introduces the major characters, their significant others - essentially, introducing the people who would care most if they did end up committing suicide. The very opening is a scene that becomes the closing of the film, which is the true story of Virginia Woolf drowning herself with heavy stones in the pockets of an overcoat. There is a voiceover of Nicole Kidman reading Woolf’s real-life suicide note to her husband, which in a way tells the entire message and conflict of the film in a succinct little paragraph.
As the plot develops, so do the characters, although their daily lives remain about the same. Woolf lives in a secluded suburban world under constant surveillance, Laura Brown lives in the modern American suburb and within the modern American stereotypes, and Clarissa’s story begins to mirror that of Woolf’s character Mrs. Dalloway. Each character is revealed to be discontented with the course of their lives, and two of them, at least, seem to yearn to loose themselves from the world’s grasp and escape into the gentle perceived comfort offered by death. The conflicts which arise and develop here are predominantly internal, as the women struggle within themselves to justify their continued existences and confront undue curses in their daily lives. In the 2001 story line, these struggles are most likely attributed to Richard Brown’s character, although Clarissa has her moments of self-doubt, existential angst and panic. While each of the three time periods sort of had its own climax, the film as a whole had when at the point when Richard, in a fit of medication-induced stupor - or, one could argue, medication-induced clarity - finally allows himself to tumble out his apartment window to his death.
The denouement involves the aftermath of Richard’s suicide for the 2001 plot line, the aftermath of the train station confrontation for the 1923 story, and the division created in the Brown family the night of Laura’s husband’s birthday when Laura postpones coming to bed. The final scene of the movie is Virginia committing suicide again, just as in the beginning of the film, by wading into the river and drowning herself.
Homosexuality, just as in Woolf’s works, was a major topic in The Hours. Of course, both Richard and Clarissa (and their significant others) are openly homosexual in the 2001 story line, but the other two time periods would be much less accepting of such an orientation, and so homosexuality, although less emphasized, played a bigger role in 1923 and 1951. Laura, when comforting her friend Kitty with an embrace, begins kissing her forehead, eventually kissing her on the lips. “You didn’t mind?” she asks as Kitty begins to leave without mentioning the kiss. “I didn’t mind what?” Kitty replies with a nervous grin, showing not only the discomfort Kitty felt at the encounter but also the attitude of the time towards homosexuality. In this regard, at least, The Hours definitely stayed true to the works of Virginia Woolf.
The idea of playing the role you’re assigned in life is another prominent topic in the film, appearing throughout the film several times. Virginia’s experience with her servants is an illustration of this, showing her ineptitude at interacting with people, even people who are supposed to be her subordinates. Laura is frightened by the prospect of conforming to the suburban housewife lifestyle, perhaps due in part to her aforementioned sexual insecurity. Clarissa represses her emotions for Richard because she’s already in a longstanding relationship, which seems to be working pretty well, and because she believes herself to be exclusively attracted to women. Louis, Richard’s former lover, has an interesting and pertinent line; when asked about San Francisco, he says, “Oh, it’s one of those cities people tell you to like.” This could be expressed as a theme by saying that people refuse to abandon the security of their societal roles, even when they’ve become trapped by them.
Another topic is wearing masks, which goes hand-in-hand with the topic of playing societal roles and is illustrated in the symbol of breaking eggs. In both the 1923 and 2001 stories, the act of breaking the shells of eggs during cooking was highlighted by extreme close-up. This action of removing the outer shell to reveal the inner yolk symbolizes the women removing their masks and allowing a glimpse of their inner emotions. Clarissa collapses after breaking eggs, spilling her emotions in front of Richard’s ex, Louis.
A second major symbol was that of water, which in mythology and psychology has at different times represented death, sleep, and the unknown. Although the film opens with a shot of flowing water, perhaps representing the pace and course of life, Virginia’s method of suicide establishes water as the harbinger of death. Additionally, when Laura contemplates her own suicide in the hotel room, Virginia’s fantasy has water erupting from under the bed and engulfing her, symbolizing not only death, but suicide, again. The water disappears when Laura makes the decision that she cannot bring herself to commit suicide and that she should continue living.
A fundamental theme of The Hours is that life, for the most part, is completely and utterly meaningless if you’re unhappy with the choices you’ve made and roles you’ve chosen. As Virginia Woolf says, “My life has been stolen…I’m living a life I have no wish to live.” Existence will drone on into perpetuity, and continue droning on into perpetuity, unless something happens to throw a little chaos into the equation - and for these women, that very might well be suicide.
A final symbol would be the book Mrs. Dalloway itself. While most of the plot is clearly written around this work of literature, the physical book as an object represents Laura Brown’s suicidal tendencies. She’s reading it when she first appears, feeling miserable and discontented; and she’s reading it in the hotel room, when she’s closest to actually following through with the suicide. Laura tells Kitty about the book, “Maybe because she’s confident everyone thinks she’s fine, but she isn’t.” Immediately thereafter, the once prim-and50’s-proper Kitty collapses into despair over her cancer.
These topics and themes were illustrated through creative cinematographic techniques. The first and among the most prevalent of these was the mattè shot, which is often used to symbolize that a character is trapped or limited in a given situation. For example, as Laura watches her husband pull out of the driveway, the camera peers at her though not only a pane of glass but also some curtains, suggesting that’s she’s trapped in her home, in her lifestyle, in her societal role, and more. In 2001, as Clarissa rides the elevator towards Richard’s apartment (and, as she leaves it afterwards, as well), she’s shot from above the elevator through a little rectangular hole in the top, suggesting that she’s trapped within her mask of confidence and poise, which won’t allow genuine emotion to show through.
Another prevalent cinematographic technique appearing in The Hours was the close-up, used on various characters’ faces over the course of the film to show inner conflicts and emotions through the actors’ expressions. My personal favorite cinematographic technique used was in the first and final scene of the movie, as Woolf wades into the waters, symbolizing death, was the long shot. The long shot is used to show contrast between the character and their surrounding environment, and since the water occupied a majority of the frame, it implied that the river, symbolizing both life and death at different times, was swallowing her up once and for all.
As to whether this was more of an artistic or commercial film, I’d say it was a little of both. While the film certainly had artistic merit and aesthetic qualities, it was slightly commercial in the sense that it was doubtless hoping to turn a profit - although this alone does not preclude artistry - and probably win several awards in the process, which it did. On a personal note, I really enjoyed the film, although it’s left me slightly depressed even as I type this very sentence. Poor Richard was my favorite character, too! As I mentioned before, suicide is anything but a light and airy topic, and perhaps that’s why The Hours was so dark and dreary. I might recommend it to a friend, but only if I was sure they weren’t going through some rough times at the moment. I don’t know if someone in that situation could take it, to be honest.