"Who would have thought that a story that handles such concepts as women’s issues, faded love, suicide, and literary consciousness and variation and weaves and connects them through the individual tales of three different women from three different eras would be so uninvolving? I’m not being sarcastic either. The opening minutes of The Hours are intensely promising, documenting the sad demise of one of its central characters and then intercutting the introductions of the three central heroines with relative fluidity. Then each of the women’s stories begins to take focus, and the connection between them starts to fall apart. Thematically, I suppose they always remain related, although as the movie progresses, the themes start to falter due to underdevelopment and overemphasis. Dramatically, though, the stories don’t mesh. In some ways, The Hours is no better than most of the so-called "chick flicks" that have been released in recent years, thanks to unconvincing character and situation development. It has a self-importance to it, though, because of its literary roots and prestigious cast. In some ways, those elements save it from becoming a total failure and raise it to something entirely mediocre."

Mark's Full Review