{"id":390746,"date":"2026-04-21T17:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390746\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T17:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:13:08","slug":"the-hours-won-awards-for-nicole-kidmans-fake-nose-and-hearts-as-a-queer-classic-the-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390746\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hours won awards for Nicole Kidman\u2019s fake nose \u2013 and hearts as a queer classic | The Hours"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Cunningham\u2019s Pulitzer prize-winning book The Hours<\/a> \u2013 inspired by Virginia Woolf\u2019s seminal 1925 novel, Mrs Dalloway \u2013 imagines one day in the lives of three women separated across time periods. The triptych follows Woolf in the throes of writing Mrs Dalloway; Laura Brown, a depressed housewife who is reading Woolf\u2019s novel in postwar America; and Clarissa Vaughan, a New Yorker who acts as a contemporary embodiment of Woolf\u2019s titular character.<\/p>\n

Cunningham\u2019s 1998 text, though widely acclaimed, was initially deemed unadaptable due to its nonlinear structure and stream-of-consciousness approach that paid homage to Woolf\u2019s pioneering style. However, since its publication, The Hours (which takes its name from Mrs Dalloway\u2019s working title), has been reinterpreted as an opera<\/a> and, most notably, a 2002 film directed by Stephen Daldry.<\/p>\n

As the title suggests, the film explores the ways in which the routine of a single day can be at once beautiful in its ordinariness or seismic in its oppressive mundanity. The three women at the film\u2019s centre are just trying to make it through: Woolf (Nicole Kidman) is unable to cope with her personal responsibilities while plagued by a deep depression; Brown (Julianne Moore) is suffocating under domestic pressures while repressing her true desires; and Vaughan (Meryl Streep) neglects her own psychological needs while caring for her ex-lover who is dying of Aids.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s individual struggles become linked through their interweaving storylines, suggesting despite the progression of time and sociopolitical advancements, many women remain smothered by the restrictions and expectations of a heteronormative, patriarchal society and are burdened by the expectation to be a \u201cwife\u201d or \u201cmother\u201d before being a \u201cperson\u201d.<\/p>\n

Housewife Laura Brown, played by Julianne Moore, is suffocating under her domestic pressures while repressing her true desires. Photograph: United Archives GmbH\/Alamy<\/p>\n

The film adaptation of The Hours is best remembered for securing an Academy Award for Nicole Kidman<\/a>, who famously donned a prosthetic nose to transform into Woolf. Kidman\u2019s win is often cited as an example of \u201cde-glamming\u201d, where an actor minimises their physical beauty in pursuit of awards glory. But accusations of The Hours as solipsistic \u201cOscar bait\u201d is a disservice to both the film and Kidman\u2019s brilliantly acidic performance.<\/p>\n

Kidman, who made The Hours while going through her divorce from Tom Cruise, channels her personal pain into Woolf\u2019s quiet despair and rage. As Woolf battles with suicidal ideation, Kidman balances the author\u2019s anguish with fox-like intelligence.<\/p>\n

Moore and Streep, playing two women also on the verge of nervous breakdowns, deliver some of the best performances of their careers. Streep, who is actually mentioned by name in Cunningham\u2019s novel, is mesmerising in the film\u2019s climactic breakdown scene, remarkable in her physical and emotional vulnerability.<\/p>\n

The trio star alongside a murderers\u2019 row of a supporting cast, including outstanding performances from Toni Collette, Ed Harris and Allison Janney.<\/p>\n

Buying the flowers herself \u2026 Meryl Streep is \u2018mesmerising\u2019 as Clarissa Vaughan in The Hours. Photograph: Entertainment Pictures\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Upon release, the film was critically acclaimed for its stellar cast and Philip Glass musical score. But it was the queer community who truly embraced The Hours \u2013 not only for its melodramatic tendencies (notably parodied in Kath & Kim<\/a>), but for its sympathetic depiction of queer sexuality across the 20th century.<\/p>\n

The Hours acutely understands how the discovery of one\u2019s queerness can be both terrifying and liberating. Each protagonist has their own unique relationship to queerness, and a sexual encounter for each threatens to unravel their understanding of themselves. For Woolf and Brown, their queerness unveils the promise of a different life, free from the inertia of a domestic prison. For Vaughan \u2013 an openly partnered lesbian in love with her gay ex-lover \u2013 a shared kiss reopens old wounds and forces her to confront buried feelings.<\/p>\n

The way time and structure are played with is also explicitly queer. The film\u2019s non-sequential structure, inspired by Woolf\u2019s norm-breaking writing technique, bucks convention, highlighting the ways queerness is rooted not only in shared history but a history that disrupts and distorts traditional, linear, \u201cstraight\u201d storytelling.<\/p>\n

The Hours is available to rent in Australia, the UK and the US. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Cunningham\u2019s Pulitzer prize-winning book The Hours \u2013 inspired by Virginia Woolf\u2019s seminal 1925 novel, Mrs Dalloway \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-390746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}