Hours [Collector's Edition]

I read the review of The Hours on dvdtown and thought it was completely unfair. Granted, I'm sure there are some problems in the movie, but the film is quite good over all. The article on the website here complained about the musical score by Mr. Glass and about, and I quote, "awful acting". I though the score fit the movie perfectly. There is a timeless theme in the movie from the three different periods, and the movie goes for timelessness. Also, there are excellent currents of depression and emotion in the music that add to the film. I loved the score and thought it fit The Hours perfectly.

As for the acting, I thought the 3 leads did an excellent job. Nicole Kidman is pretty good as Virgina. Her body movements, tone of voice, and gestures are all suited to her character. I liked Ms. Moore in her role, but thought she was better in Far From Heaven. I think that the best acting came from Meryl Streep in this. She didn't have a show off role like Kidman, but is able to let the depression and insercurity about her character leak into different lines in the movie. A great example of the unstable nature in her character was the scene where she was buying the flowers. A specific part was when the store keeper asks how she is, instead of saying "good" or "fine", she answers, in a hollow tone of confidence, "I'm having a party". Streep delievers all the lines in that scene perfectly.

Overall, this is a movie to be seen if you are curious about it. It's not nearly as bad as the dvdtown review states.

Notorious,

I have no complaints about the Philip Glass music score in and of itself. I actually like listening to the music score by itself. However, I DO have a complaint about the poor marriage of visuals and music. Also, on a personal level, I don't like it when music and audio effects drown out dialogue when it's not necessary (for example, when there aren't any explosions that would realistically drown out voices in real-world conditions).

Yunda Eddie Feng

Thanks for the reply to my review. I'm glad you do like the Glass score in and of itself. I just wanted to state that i did believe the music and the movie came together, and one did not distract from the other.

However, I can't really comment on the dvd quality of the sound. Too bad Paramount didn't go for a 5.1 release. Even though it might not be completely needed because The Hours is a "talkie" film, it probably could have benifited a little from it. It is just that the movie, 2 commentaries, interviews, and documentaries seem like an awful lot to fit onto one disc. Maybe a 2 disc set would have been a better choice by Paramount.

Notorious:

Well, you liked the movie, and I didn't. It's no big deal, really.

As for DD 5.1 or 5.0...the lack of a 0.1 designation for low-ends simply means that the disc itself doesn't tell your A/V receiver that there are low frequencies. The A/V receiver has to do the thinking with 5.0 mixes, and it WILL route "bass" to the subwoofer if you don't have full-range speakers for the five main channels. There are other DD 5.0 mixes with plenty of "bass" (like Disney's "Tarzan").

Eddie

Ok, I'll go with that...lol. I understand how the speakers work now with the .1 tracks. Thanks for the help.

PS. The new site looks great too!

Hey, no problem!

Thanks for the compliment.

Yes, Eddie is often helpful like this. I said it before, and I repeat it again that he is one of the two of my favorite reviewers and certainly the one I listen to most carefully. However, as pointed out by the man himself, some people will like the movies and others will not.
I loved this one. Yes, the soundtrack was a little misplaced, but I am not an expert enough to appreciate these things. But the acting is not awful at all. I cannot say that I did not wish for the death of the AIDS stricken character. (I think I actually screamed at the screen a few times.) Also, while Kidman was fine in the film, I thought that she and Streep should have switched roles.