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So, the movie "The Hours" is what brings me here. |
Hey you all.
About two weeks ago, on a Thursday afternoon, I had just got away from my computer and decided to take a nap. But somehow, I stopped by the family lounge and in seconds, I was clicking the remote, shuffling through channels. 107 was showing a movie, and its synopsis didn't give away much, but the little it bore, caught my attention.
It was already far gone, about 80mins into this movie about depression and suicide, but I sunk into the cream cushion while my head rested against my hand brought over the shoulder, for the remaining 40mins.
Minutes after the cast and crew came up on the dark screen, I just lay there. Right there with the warmth of the leather, soothing my open skin. I couldn't move, its that type of nervousness when you feel you just don't know what to do. Like your silence, if broken, could crack a glass. I didn't want to breathe even, because I felt like I would speed past this magic I just watched on my small screen. I have since, (thanks to DSTV's awkward love for repetition) watched it over 15times (+ have it on my DVR) and it honestly, still takes my breath away.
"The Hours" isn't a biopic, but at the same time, it tells the life of the legendary British author from the 20s, Virginia Woolf and her struggle with mental illness which eventually leads to her suicide in 1941. (Can I just add that her suicide note to her husband IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING EVER WRITTEN IN DESPAIR. ITS RAW POETIC NATURE VIBES A LOVE SO BEAUTIFUL, BUT ACHINGLY TORTURED).
In most cases of suicide, people vehemently dismiss it as an act of cowardice or selfishness, but this movie braves it out without being condescending. Living is hard. Dying is difficult. When dying seems much easier than living, there should be a feeling of accomplishment. You know? That feeling that ascertains that you couldn't have been luckier or couldn't have gotten better. Like, you've had it all. Because what is life? We can say that we have lived many lives, we have been born, and we have died over and over again but one day, on that fragment of life, we will have to return this gift that was given to us, and with it all the horrors, the pain, the love, laughs and tears. Just one day after all these hours we've been through, we will look life in the eye... and we will definitely say good bye.
"The Hours" is so beautifully acted and made. It has a poetic resonance as it unfolds through its 120mins running time. The film is stark in its ability to illustrate the truth and some people may react to the film in negativity because of its brutality, but sincerely, Its about pain, grief, choices on how to live your life or end it if you must.
Virginia Woolf had a deep interest in the conflict between individual identity and embracing the wider world around. Most of her happy times during her lifetime was when she was writing any of her numerous bestseller. To her, throughout her lifetime, and just like us too, life must be explored and enjoyed, but at the same time, attempting to communicate our interiority to the world is often impossible and dangerous.
Even though I already, perhaps, made this movie to seem twisted and gory and dark and depressing, I still think the overall emotion the film can reflect on is compassion. Compassion for people who are living the hours as they chose, not judging them, but just simply realizing they all- we all struggle with pain, and also that life is not all pain and can be joyful.
I was floored at how much this movie tugged at me. I am still reverberating from it. Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore were all outstanding! They made this movie an inspiration to watch for those of us who intend creating stories that skip through air.
Unrecognizable in a false nose and Ann Roth's excellent costumes to take on the role of Virginia Woolf; it is clear that Nicole Kidman has gotten a death grip on this character(hereby wining an Oscar for that in 2002). The climax comes with her riveting monologue on a train station, where, with tears in her eyes, and the look of pain on her face, she desperately argues with her husband, Leonard to return them to London. It's a scene of spell-binding emotional power, as we see Virginia Woolf's controlled turmoil of creativity, her all-consuming mental anguish, and perhaps a portent of the welcoming blissfulness of her death.
It was very uneasy for the hair on my body to be asleep through that scene. If you can; notice how well Nicole Kidman achieves her accent and voice change. Her mannerisms are impeccable, they are not overdone, she channels her creativity to its climax that it is so wonderful to watch.
Meryl 'Oscar' Streep is so honest in her acting, that she seldomly becomes an emotion.
Julianne Moore is subtle, very subtle and yet so effective!
I was amazed at how much Ed Harris does for his roles. He is amazing! This movie is very emotional and can trigger depression.
I felt a heaviness after watching it but there was also so much beauty layered within. So keep this in your mind if you chose to watch this film.
The Hours is about those things we don't say because they don't fit into words; it's a film of lost feelings, bizarre, un-scrambling emotions and trying to figure out what lies beneath the surface. We are all terribly alone, and the relationships we do develop between people are often in-transient and frequently fragile. The Hours is a grand, melancholy and uneasy film that is multifaceted and full of meaning.
SONG BENEATH THE SONG.
1, Philip Glass- The Hours.
This sounds like, like....a puzzling and forbidding strangeness. What a wonderful, mournful, melodious but never intrusive movie score by Philip Glass.
VIRGINIA WOOLF'S SUICIDE NOTE TO HER HUSBAND, LEONARD.
“Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t
go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this
time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing
what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible
happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t
think two people could have been happier ’til this terrible disease
came. I can’t fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life,
that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can’t
even write this properly. I can’t read. What I want to say is I owe all
the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me
and incredibly good. I want to say that — everybody knows it. If anybody
could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me
but the certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling your life
any longer. I don’t think two people could have been happier than we
have been.
Dear Leonard. To look life in the face, always, to look life in the face and to know it for what it is. At last to know it, to love it for what it is, and then, to put it away. Leonard, always the years between us, always the years. Always the love. Always the hours. V.”
