Oh, man, what a fantastic movie is. This was my second viewing of
The Hours. I first watched it in 2010 and remember being extremely surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I would not have given this movie a chance back when it came out in 2002, but my interest in films has changed dramatically since then. Now, that’s not to say I still can’t enjoy a blockbuster (I watched
Captain America: Civil War earlier in the same day and loved it). Still, I am much more into the human aspect of independent dramas like
The Hours than I am about action movies or comedies. This movie deals with depression, a topic that I am, unfortunately, very familiar with. It does it from three different periods with three stories that are sometimes loose (and not so loosely) during others. This movie knotted Nicole Kidman (
Cold Mountain, Rabbit Hole) with, surprisingly, just her third nomination to date (as of May 2016) and her first and only win. With a prosthetic nose, she was virtually unrecognizable as Virginia Woolf. But it wasn’t her physical characteristics that stood out. It was how she immersed herself in the role of a woman who you would think had it all but was so mentally troubled that she could not find any happiness in her life. An accomplished actress, this is the performance of her career in a movie that shouldn’t be missed by anybody who views life with a cup-half-empty sort of mentality.
Continue reading The Hours (2002) →
The moviegoer is in for a treat each time when either Danny Boyle or Alex Garland is involved in a project. Whether it be Boyle with a timeless filmography of directing credits that include Sunshine, Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, and 127 Hours, or Garland’s vision with outside-the-box, ahead-of-his-time instant classics, such as Annihilation, Ex Machina, or Civil War, you can be confident you will be thinking of the film long after its view. 28 Days Later was the first time the two teamed up (Boyle as director, Garland as screenwriter). They struck a perfect accord of a tense, suspenseful, and foreboding film, painting a grim picture of what humanity could look like under the direst of circumstances.
What was Denzel Washington thinking? Fresh off roles in 1998’s The Hurricane (Academy Award Winner – Lead Actor), the nationally recognized 2000’s Remember the Titans, and 2002’s 
Jason Patric can play a police detective as well as anyone can. Patric would have been excellent on a show like The Shield. Seeing Patric in a reoccurring role and watching him delve deeper and deeper into his character, regardless of which direction that character might have gone, would have been something special. But Patrick has always been, and probably always will be, a silver-screen performer. He is undoubtedly not an A-lister, and his role has become few and far between. But, outside of Speed 2: Cruise Control, he always brings his A-game. For Patric, that involves grit, determination, and a deep understanding of the character he will be portraying. In my opinion, Patric was born to play the roles of undercover detectives, police officers, narcs, etc. He’s got the look. He understands the lingo. He’s scuzzy enough to pull it off but can invoke just the right amount of sympathy for viewers to believe in him and know that he’s one of the “good guys.”