As I went out to get the mail this morning, I heard one of the ladies in my mother's building talking in the laundry room about the movie The Hours. I lingered for a few seconds, sort of interested in what they thought of it. It's been a favourite of mine since it first came out back in 2002.
The lady in the laundry room, was unable to get past the idea of the lesbian relationship that the main character was part of. The man she was talking to about it, asked her twice while I was standing there what the main plot of the film was, but she was stuck on the one character.
I have not read the book that The Hours is based on, but I have read the original story by Virgina Woolf called Mrs Dalloway. I have also seen the film Motherhood which is a loose retelling of it.
Just now, as I was doing the dishes, my mind wandered back to the few sentences of their conversation that I heard, then to the movie. Which, isn't that how things go? Like a chain reaction sometimes. I started thinking about the love triangle that is indeed the modern part of the movie. The character of Clarissa is completely in love with her one time lover Richard, but is unable to be with him. Meanwhile, she must deal with the fact his ex-boyfriend is in town to visit. You feel the jealousy before it gets played out in the film. You wouldn't right off the bat consider this a love story, but at the heart it is. It talks about the things we do for the people who matter the most in our lives, the ones that give us the most joy and usually the most pain.
When I think of this movie, I can't help but wonder, at what point do we cross the line from sanity to self sacrifice. Which was what I was asking the other week when I wrote this post here
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