The Hours - Stephen Daldry, based on a novel by Michael Cunningham
Rating: 4 out of 5
Note: Not recommended for people with depression, bipolar, or even cyclothymic disorder. Not recommended for guys too, cuz i doubt u’d really understand what was going on.
What a film to watch over the CNY… I almost turned suicidal and broke down in tears for no apparent reason… following which I had to stop the movie and resume it a day later. -_-
Oio, stupid self-professed saint! ‘thanks’ for your recommendation!
I suppose the reason why it affected me so much was cuz I could identify with one of the characters… that would be Laura (Julianne Moore). Despite all that perfection and apparent satisfaction, which looked to all like a wonderfully happy family, I do still feel a pervading sense of loneliness. It’s like nothing you ever achieve or do would really matter. After all, we’re all just going to die right? Sometimes I really wonder why I’m doing all this… and I’ve come to realise that the only way I’m going to keep myself alive and striving ahead is if I’m doing it for myself. If I ever decide that I’m living for someone else, or living to contribute to a faceless, meaningless society, or if I’m living just so to attain all the power, glory and monetary comforts, I’d sooner kill myself. YES, we have to live for ourselves!
The character I felt saddest for was Clarissa (Meryl Streep). She was a woman who had a summer relationship with this guy, who later turned gay… (and I mean real gay, like living with a guy partner). Later on, the guy she loved suffered from AIDS, and she continued, painstakingly to stay by his side in order to take care of him. Everything in her live revolved around him. We would wonder, why why why would she voluntarily remain by a guy who gave up her love and became GAY? And why look after a person when she knew that he was going to die… and spend terrible years suffering physical pain and stigma before he passed away? Maybe she really loved him, some might say, but I’m more inclined to say that she needed to feel worthy, to feel needed and to feel like someone’s life depended on her. Hmmm actually it’s not that rare too, I believe so many women out there do so much, in fact, too much, for the ‘weaker sex’.
As for Virginia Woolf, I think she’s a highly intriguing woman… very feminist… very courageous… Do you know how she killed herself? She wore a heavy overcoat, put a stone in her pocket, and forced herself to walk into the cold waters of the river near where she lived. She was a very good swimmer, yet she managed to force herself to die this way… Her method of suicide has been described as ‘gallant’. Anyway, it’s not fair to form an idea of her based on what other people have interpreted, as in the movie and the bonus features within. I think I will borrow a copy of her books to read and try to understand her better through her work. Excerpts from her work were read out in the bonus features, and I really like the way she writes… so poetic and vivid!
“Write a lot of letters to yr family and friends, keep a diary; don’t let a day pass without recording it, whether anything interesting has happened or not. Something interesting happens everyday.”
— Virginia Woolf
Don’t you admire the passion she possesses?
