With our warning that The Hours "aims to stimulate a little higher above the belt", and that you should be "willing to invest full attention" mean that this will be a particularly serious DVD review. Read it as a whisper in your head, and for God's sake try to keep up!

Theatre Darling

In the featurette Three Women, director Stephen Daldry talks about the pleasure of working with three actresses who share his love of the theatre, but he doesn't reveal his thoughts on Julianne Moore's objection to the rehearsal process. Moore does touch upon her dislike for rehearsal in the commentary, but she and Daldry both waffle around the issue - trying desperately not to tread on each other's toes.

The Strong And The Woolly

Elements of the extra features on the DVD are worth exploring. There's an efficient background featurette on the life of Virginia Woolf, which could easily have been longer given the calibre of the interviewees. Additionally the commentary with Stephen Daldry and writer Michael Cunningham is a detailed examination of what was an unusual and imaginative project. Add to that the excellent technical presentation of the film and this is a worthwhile purchase for fans of the film.

The disc doesn't benefit from a commentary by Kidman, Streep, and Moore, their combined ramblings being rather wishy washy in nature. For the same reason, the music featurette where composer Philip Glass talks about the score is not needed. It's exceptionally rare that composers can add anything worthwhile to the director's commentary. If they feel the need to explain their music, then their work was surely lacking in the first place. If you ignore these extras, this DVD is certainly worth a few hours of your time.

EXTRA FEATURES

This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-N5 DVD player.