"The Hours"

Monday’s screening was over the film “The Hours.” The film was intriguing and although I have not started reading “Mrs. Dalloway” yet it will be interesting to see how the film matches up to the novel. So far, we have seen one major recurring theme and that is death. In the film, all three main characters at some point come face to face with death whether it is the thought of committing suicide or dealing with the death of a beloved friend. Although the story follows three different women in three different decades they are all somehow connected through a piece of literature. The film really teaches us the lesson of how fragile life can be and how for some it is often taken for granted. For instance, Laura Brown (played by Julianne Moore) is unhappy with her life and contemplates with the idea of taking her own life while reading in her hotel bedroom. However, she realizes that she cannot go through with it but we later find out that she does in fact leave her family after the birth of her second child. Another theme that occurs in the film is abandonment. The little boy name Richie, who is longing for his mother, is also Richard in New York. As a result of his mother’s abandonment and the constant reminder of his disease Richard reaches a point in his life where he can no longer face the “hours.” The only reason for his living was for Clarissa but even that was not enough. We have this idea of death being an escape route from all our prior obligations and duties. For Richard and Virginia Woolf committing suicide would mean the end of pain and suffering or insanity. In one scene we see Virginia tell her husband that she would rather choose death then to live in Richmond. On the other hand, Laura Brown chooses to live only to become abandoned by her entire family. All in all, “The Hours” takes a deeper look inside the struggles of three women's lives and how they manage to get through the hours rather than the days.

My question to you guys is what are your thoughts on the film? What other themes can we find in the film and how does it compare/differ to “Time Regained?”