The Hours
The Players: Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore; directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot)
The Skinny: Based on a novel by Michael Cunningham, this drama weaves the stories of three women and their connections with Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway in a story that spans the 20th century. One story centers on Woolf herself (Kidman) as she struggles to write the novel in 1923; the next story takes place in the 1950s, when a pregnant and depressed woman, Laura (Moore), finds solace in reading the novel; the third focuses on Clarissa (Streep), a modern-day lesbian known to her friends as “Mrs. Dalloway.”
The Bottom Line: Grand in scale yet intimate in its portraits of three women, it should score big points come Oscar time (although you may have to drag the menfolk to see it).
Opens: Dec. 27
