The Hours: a Belated Review
January 31, 2006
“I chose life.”
In this critically-acclaimed film filled with darkness and misery, no line disturbed me more. Decades after abandoning her family, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), sums up her defense: “I chose life.” If she had not run away from her husband, her two small children − from her life − Brown reasons, she would have taken her own life. Equally disturbing is the apparent reaction of Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep), the recipient of Brown’s unsolicited confession. Vaughn, haunted by the fear that her own life has been meaningless, seems to draw comfort, some sense of peace from Brown’s view of life: any life lived − no matter how it is lived − is satisfactory, meaningful, and a victory over death.
