The Hours (2002)

Academy Awards, USA 2003

Winner Oscar	Best Actress in a Leading Role Nicole Kidman
Nominee Oscar	Best Picture Scott Rudin Robert Fox
	Best Actor in a Supporting Role Ed Harris
	Best Actress in a Supporting Role Julianne Moore
	Best Director Stephen Daldry
	Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay David Hare
	Best Costume Design Ann Roth
	Best Film Editing Peter Boyle
	Best Music, Original Score Philip Glass

Paramount
Directed by Stephen Daldry
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Paramount)

Virginia Woolf is having a nervous breakdown while writing her latest book in 1920s England. Decades later, dissatisfied California housewife Julianne Moore reads the finished novel while trying to hold her own life together. In modern day New York City, a character strongly resembling the one in the novel prepares a party for a friend dying of AIDS. The stories interweave and have striking similarities, not the least of which is suicide. The second and third merge as Moore's character turns out to be the elderly mother of the dying man, revealing what happened in the long intervening gap. Occasionally moving but mostly confusing, the non-linear storytelling apparently meant to mimic the style of Woolf's writing. Mostly, though, I could not stop looking at Nicole Kidman's prosthetic nose, an entirely unnecessary distraction. Soundtrack by Philip Glass is good, but also calls to much attention to itself.