The Hours...the movie

If I were the director of this movie, I think it would be very difficult to portray the exact thoughts and emotions from the characters in the novel into a real-live format. Firstly, I would have to be very specific and cautious in my choice of the actresses who would play the roles of especially Clarissa, Laura, and Virginia, because these characters are so complex in the novel that it would be very crucial to choose talented actresses for these roles.

In order for the audience to understand the thoughts and feelings of these three women, I would try to create a movie in which the actual actress’s voice is heard from the background when she is in the scene, describing how she feels in one particular moment or about something she is remembering from the past. For example, for Laura Brown, I would show the audience the actress playing Laura, and I would have her voice in the background describing what she is thinking, such as her list of tasks to accomplish for her husband’s birthday. However, I realize that this would lose attention of the viewers if it were overused. So, in order to portray the rest of the characters’ thoughts, I would have them speaking out loud to themselves in simple, short sentences. This would not be so dramatic in which the audience might perceive these characters as mentally unstable, but a few audible comments from each main character, in solitude, would definitely help the viewers understand and connect with each woman on a more personal level.

Also, in order to follow the pattern of Cunningham’s writing in this novel, I would need to have my story bounce back and forth between the three characters and their settings quite often. To help the viewer understand and comprehend the frequent changes in setting, I would create each setting to be completely different from the others. For example, for Clarissa’s setting, I would have all of her surroundings resemble the fast pace and typical high class lifestyle of New York, in deep contrast with Virginia’s setting, which would be similar to a quiet house in England placed on a meadow where no other signs of life or society would be visible. Then, I would have Laura Brown’s setting as a middle class farmhouse located in the outskirts of Los Angeles, where the rush of city life is near, but she seems to be trapped in her home with her old fashioned house ware and outfits similar to June Cleaver.

In conclusion, I believe this film would be very difficult to create. Obviously, it would be easier than most, since the script is already written, but forming an accurate motion picture to tell this story would be a very complicated process since there are three different settings in different time periods, very little dialogue, and one day in time for every event, thought, memory, and reflection to occur. Considering these details, I am expecting to be slightly disappointed by the movie’s depiction of the novel. It very well could be an entertaining movie, but it is not possible to be as detailed and descriptive in a film than in a book.