In 1998, author Michael Cunningham published his novel The Hours, which tells the story of three generations of women impacted by Virginia Woolf's 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway. The first woman is Virginia Woolf herself, who is in the midst of writing Mrs. Dalloway while dealing with turmoil surrounding her professional and personal life, specifically her battle with mental illness. The second woman in Cunningham's story is a deeply unhappy housewife living in post-World War II Los Angeles. The third and final woman is living in present day New York City (1999 at the time) and coping with the slow death of her close friend and former partner who is dying of AIDS. Cunningham's novel intricately weaves the stories of these three women and those around them--highlighting their independence, their sexualities and their shortcomings--all of it taking place over the course of a single insignificant day in each woman's life. At the start of the film, Nicole Kidman's Virginia Woolf sets the story's poignant tone: "A woman's whole life in a single day. Just one day. And in that day, her whole life."

In 1999, the year after its release, Michael Cunningham won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. By 2002, Michael Cunningham's novel was adapted for the screen by David Hare, with Stephen Daldry as director, the latter who is perhaps best known for his award-winning work in theatre, both on the West End and on Broadway. The Hours (2002) was only Daldry's second feature-film directorial effort, the first being the enormously successful Billy Elliott, released in 2000 (which he also helped bring to the stage in a musical adaptation). Bringing Michael Cunningham's stream of consciousness storytelling to the screen, especially with three separate stories in three different eras, as well as depicting the real Virginia Woolf, was no easy feat for David Hare and Stephen Daldry. However, David Hare found Cunningham's story the perfect challenge, saying that having three stories to work with over the course of a long period of time is far better than just two that go back and forth between the past and the present. When asked about those three storylines and how he successfully carried them from page to screen, Hare said, "You don't quite understand why the three stories are linked, and each of the stories has a different flavor. I honestly don't know why there aren't more triangular films when there are so many boring dual films."

In addition to David Hare's Academy Award-nominated screenplay, The Hours features an incredibly impressive cast, including strong performances by three of Hollywood's top actresses: Nicole Kidman (Virginia Woolf), Julianne Moore (Laura Brown) and Meryl Streep (Clarissa Vaughan), as well as supporting performances by Ed Harris, Miranda Richardson, John C. Reilly, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Toni Collette, Claire Danes and Margo Martindale. For her role as Virginia Woolf, Nicole Kidman won an Academy Award for Best Actress. Other nominations include Best Picture, Best Actor for Ed Harris, Best Supporting Actress for Julianne Moore and Best Director for Stephen Daldry.

The popularity and critical praise for the novel The Hours and its film adaptation was completely unexpected by both Michael Cunningham and his publisher. When asked if he knew he had written a bestseller and that it would be adapted to a feature-length film, Cunningham said, "Neither I nor anyone involved with the book--my publisher, my agent--thought anything about this: this is my arty little novel, it will sell a few thousand copies and then march with whatever dignity it can muster to the remainders tables. And, really, everything that's happened has been a surprise."

Director: Stephen Daldry
Screenplay: David Hare, based on The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Producer: Scott Rudin and Robert Fox
Cinematography: Seamus McGarvey
Editing: Peter Boyle
Music: Philip Glass
Cast: Nicole Kidman (Virginia Woolf), Julianne Moore (Laura Brown), Meryl Streep (Clarissa Vaughan), John C. Reilly (Dan Brown), Toni Collette (Kitty), Stephen Dillane (Leonard Woolf), Miranda Richardson (Vanessa Bell), Ed Harris (Richie Brown), Allison Janney (Sally Lester), Claire Danes (Julia Vaughan), Jeff Daniels (Louis Waters) and Margo Martindale (Mrs. Latch).

References
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/03/24/how-the-hours-happened
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/hours-review-2002-movie-1070395
https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2018/09/19/life-in-a-single-day-the-hours-2002/

By Jill Blake