The movie The Hours
was a fresh take on the book Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. While I didn’t really like the movie, I thought
it did a good job of presenting the essentials of Mrs. Dalloway in a movie format. One thing I noticed was that each character in the movie
was not strictly assigned to one corresponding character from Mrs. Dalloway; they all embodied
different traits of several characters from the novel. There were obvious
connections like Clarissa and Sally in the 2001 time period representing
Clarissa and Sally from the book, but there were also more subtle connections,
such as Richard in the 2001 time period embodying both Richard Dalloway and
Septimus Smith. At one point in the movie, I felt like all the characters could
identify with Septimus Smith. If anything, I would have liked for there to be a
Miss Kilman character in the 2001 time period and to see the dynamics between
her, Clarissa and Julia (Elizabeth).
My favorite part of the movie was how it captured Woolf’s
style of free indirect discourse. In a movie without a narrator it is obviously impossible
to switch between character’s viewpoints, but I think switching between time
periods and having the period plots converge at the end achieved a similar
effect. I also enjoyed Virgina Woolf’s story line and I learned a lot about her
and her circumstances, which helped me to better reflect on the novel.
I also definitely think it's a good point to mention that none of the characters in the movie seemed to be mirror images of the characters from the influencing book (except maybe the Clarissa's, but even that's debatable). Richard in "Mrs. Dalloway" was a successful and safe romantic partner, but Richard in "The Hours" is more closely aligned with Septimus, both in pessimistic viewpoints and their suicides. Also, yeah, I wonder how Miss Kilman would have fit into the whole picture! Especially since she would have somehow been catering to modern Clarissa.
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