Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer prize-winning book The Hours – inspired by Virginia Woolf’s seminal 1925 novel, Mrs Dalloway – imagines one day in the lives of three women separated across time periods. The triptych follows Woolf in the throes of writing Mrs Dalloway; Laura Brown, a depressed housewife who is reading Woolf’s novel in postwar America; and Clarissa Vaughan, a New Yorker who acts as a contemporary embodiment of Woolf’s titular character.
Cunningham’s 1998 text, though widely acclaimed, was initially deemed unadaptable due to its nonlinear structure and stream-of-consciousness approach that paid homage to Woolf’s pioneering style. However, since its publication, The Hours (which takes its name from Mrs Dalloway’s working title), has been reinterpreted as an opera and, most notably, a 2002 film directed by Stephen Daldry.
As the title suggests, the film explores the ways in which the routine of a single day can be at once beautiful in its ordinariness or seismic in its oppressive mundanity. The three women at the film’s centre are just trying to make it through: Woolf (Nicole Kidman) is unable to cope with her personal responsibilities while plagued by a deep depression; Brown (Julianne Moore) is suffocating under domestic pressures while repressing her true desires; and Vaughan (Meryl Streep) neglects her own psychological needs while caring for her ex-lover who is dying of Aids.
The women’s individual struggles become linked through their interweaving storylines, suggesting despite the progression of time and sociopolitical advancements, many women remain smothered by the restrictions and expectations of a heteronormative, patriarchal society and are burdened by the expectation to be a “wife” or “mother” before being a “person”.
The film adaptation of The Hours is best remembered for securing an Academy Award for Nicole Kidman, who famously donned a prosthetic nose to transform into Woolf. Kidman’s win is often cited as an example of “de-glamming”, where an actor minimises their physical beauty in pursuit of awards glory. But accusations of The Hours as solipsistic “Oscar bait” is a disservice to both the film and Kidman’s brilliantly acidic performance.
Kidman, who made The Hours while going through her divorce from Tom Cruise, channels her personal pain into Woolf’s quiet despair and rage. As Woolf battles with suicidal ideation, Kidman balances the author’s anguish with fox-like intelligence.
Moore and Streep, playing two women also on the verge of nervous breakdowns, deliver some of the best performances of their careers. Streep, who is actually mentioned by name in Cunningham’s novel, is mesmerising in the film’s climactic breakdown scene, remarkable in her physical and emotional vulnerability.
The trio star alongside a murderers’ row of a supporting cast, including outstanding performances from Toni Collette, Ed Harris and Allison Janney.
Upon release, the film was critically acclaimed for its stellar cast and Philip Glass musical score. But it was the queer community who truly embraced The Hours – not only for its melodramatic tendencies (notably parodied in Kath & Kim), but for its sympathetic depiction of queer sexuality across the 20th century.
The Hours acutely understands how the discovery of one’s queerness can be both terrifying and liberating. Each protagonist has their own unique relationship to queerness, and a sexual encounter for each threatens to unravel their understanding of themselves. For Woolf and Brown, their queerness unveils the promise of a different life, free from the inertia of a domestic prison. For Vaughan – an openly partnered lesbian in love with her gay ex-lover – a shared kiss reopens old wounds and forces her to confront buried feelings.
The way time and structure are played with is also explicitly queer. The film’s non-sequential structure, inspired by Woolf’s norm-breaking writing technique, bucks convention, highlighting the ways queerness is rooted not only in shared history but a history that disrupts and distorts traditional, linear, “straight” storytelling.
The Hours is available to rent in Australia, the UK and the US. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
