The Hours - 2002 (MOVIE)

It is a drama film based on Michael Cunningham’s book which has the same name. “The hours” is a movie in which three women of different times live similar situations. Their lives are connected by what they live, all of them are connected by Virginia Woolf´s book, Mrs Dalloway. Indeed, one of the characters is Virginia; the other two characters of the movie are in a way other two “Virginias” and share some characteristics of her life and of her book’s character, Clarisse. The main idea of the movie is to show Virginia’s life, and how it would be develop in different generations. This film shows us two main issues in her life; lesbianism and suicide.

The movie in a way mix Virginia’s life with Clarisse’s life, and there are some important moments in the movie such as the one in which Laura tries to commit suicide and then some water appears, when she changes her opinion. For me, it is a relation to Virginia’s death, because she committed suicide in a river.

The lesbianism is showed in the movie too, and is taken from Virginia’s book, Mrs Dalloway. Many important facts of Virginia’s life are taken into consideration in the movie such as her mental illness that then allow her to commit suicide, or the bipolarity she had. From my perspective, I strongly believe that Virginia’s stories are a reflection of what we wanted to be or to do, depending on the book, in a way she tries to escape by writing and putting into paper her thoughts. The “suicide” as an important topic in her writing was maybe a clue of what was going to be her final death. Even though she has mental disorder, she was completely conscious about her writing, being one of the pioneers of that time with James Joyce. Indeed, both of them were part of a well-knonw group called “Bloomsburry” in which many intellectuals shared their knowledge. I know that we have not read the book “the hours” yet, but we will. I really think it would help us to understand better Virginia Woolf’s writing.