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Must Go!
Avg. Critic Score: 81 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
15 OK for kids 15+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    It never disconnects from two values: its honesty and its intensity. Read full review

  • 100
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    With its deft intercutting of place and time, the film creates a powerful sense of mysticism and fate. Read full review

  • 100
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    The result is something rare, especially considering how fine the novel is, a film that's fuller and deeper than the book. Read full review

  • 100
    The New York Times | Stephen Holden

    Ms. Kidman, in a performance of astounding bravery, evokes the savage inner war waged by a brilliant mind against a system of faulty wiring that transmits a searing, crazy static into her brain. Read full review

  • 100
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    A splendid film. It uses all the resources of cinema -- masterful writing, superb acting, directorial intelligence, an enveloping score, top-of-the-line production design, costumes, cinematography and editing -- to make a film whose cumulative emotional power takes viewers by surprise, capturing us unawares in its ability to move us as deeply as it does. Read full review

  • 90
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    Considerable intelligence and strategic finesse have been brought to bear on this handsomely mounted adaptation of Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which was hardly a natural for the bigscreen. Read full review

  • 88
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    For a movie audience, The Hours doesn't connect in a neat way, but introduces characters who illuminate mysteries of sex, duty and love. Read full review

  • 75
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    These three unimprovable actresses make The Hours a thing of beauty. Read full review

  • 75
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Richly layered, deliberately paced, dealing with difficult emotions and life decisions, it feels like a moody wintry afternoon. Read full review

  • 67
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    While we can admire their attractive exteriors, we don't know anything about the interior lives of the three women so vibrantly miserable in their unhappiness. Read full review

View more reviews for The Hours on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 15+ Smart, thoughtful movie for older teens and up.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this movie has tense and sad situations, including two suicides and one near-suicide. A character speaks of having to have a serious operation. There are sexual references and situations, including artificial insemination and same-sex kisses. Characters use strong language. Gay and bi-sexual characters are positively portrayed though sometimes anguished and isolated.
  • Families can talk about what this means, and how most of us are defined and define ourselves not by huge heroic adventures but by small connections and kindnesses. What did Virginia, Laura, and Clarissa find to give value and meaning to their lives? They have people to love and people who love them - what are they missing, and why? What is the significance of those three kisses, none of which seems to give the characters the comfort and intimacy they are seeking? Why does Cunningham give us three stories touched by the fictional character created by Woolf? Does he think that any of his characters are successful? How can you tell? What book could inspire you as Cunningham was inspired by Woolf?
What to watch for
  • violence false0 Violence: None Suicides
  • sex false3 Sex: Sexual references and situations including same-sex kisses
  • language false3 Language: Some strong language
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Drinking, smoking, and prescription drug use
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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