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Literature: The Hours

Kitty: Oh, you're reading a book?

Laura Brown: Yeah.

Kitty: What's this one about?

Laura Brown: Oh, it's about this woman who's incredibly - well, she's a hostess and she's incredibly confident and she's going to give a party. And, maybe because she's confident, everyone thinks she's fine... but she isn't.

A 1998 novel by Michael Cunningham, The Hours won the Pulitzer-Prize the following year and was made into a film in 2002. The film version, directed by Stephen Daldry, starred Nicole Kidman in her Oscar-winning role, and also featured Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Ed Harris in the cast.

Although they are nearly eighty years apart, three different women are connected to each other by the Virginia Woolf classic Mrs. Dalloway. In 1923, the author herself battles depression and her inner demons just as she begins to write her novel. In 1949, housewife Laura Brown finds comfort in her everyday life through the same novel. In 1999 (2001 in the film), Clarissa Vaughn embodies Mrs. Dalloway herself as she prepares a party for her friend Richard, a poet dying of AIDS.

Not to be confused with the talk show The Hour, or the BBC drama series of the same name.

This novel and film feature examples of:

Beauty Inversion: Nicole Kidman wore a fake nose as Virginia Woolf.
Book Ends: Virginia Woolf�s suicide in 1941.
Cast Full of Gay
Driven to Suicide: Not just Virginia, but Ritchie as well.
- Laura contemplates suicide, but doesn't actually go through with it.
Flower Motifs: Flowers show up quite a few times in each timeline.
Housewife: Laura. However, she's unhappy with her life. She eventually leaves her husband and kids, moves to Canada and starts working at a library
Literary Allusion Title: To Mrs. Dalloway. The Hours was its original working title.
Love Triangle: Clarissa was in love with Richard in college (and still is to an extent). But, he eventually left her for Louis Waters.
Match Cut Used frequently as a transition device between the three periods of time.
Meaningful Name: Several of the characters (who aren't historical figures) have names relating to the novel Mrs. Dalloway. Clarissa is named after the protagonist, Richard is named after Richard Dalloway, Clarissa's partner Sally is named after Sally Seton who had a relationship with Mrs. Dalloway. Clariss'a daughter Julia is named after Julia Stephen, Virginia Woolf's mother.
Missing Mom: Laura for Richard and his sister.
Oscar Bait
Starts With A Suicide: The story starts with Virginia's suicide.
Throw It In: Meryl Streep�s reaction to the water exploding from the faucet, itself an unscripted event.
Title Drop: Twice. Once by Richard and at the end by Virginia Woolf.
Write Who You Know: In-universe, Richard based all of the characters in his novel off the people in his life.