Sir David Hare (born 5 June 1947) is an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre and film director. Most notable for his stage work, Hare has also enjoyed great success with films, receiving two Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing The Hours in 2002, based on the novel written by Michael Cunningham, and The Reader in 2008, based on the novel of the same name written by Bernhard Schlink.
On West End, he had his greatest success with the plays Plenty, which he adapted into a film starring Meryl Streep in 1985, Racing Demon (1990), Skylight (1997), and Amy's View (1998). The four plays ran on Broadway in 1982–83, 1996, 1998 and 1999 respectively, earning Hare three Tony Award nominations for Best Play for the first three and two Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. Other notable projects on stage include A Map of the World, Pravda, Murmuring Judges, The Absence of War and The Vertical Hour. He wrote screenplays for the film Wetherby and the BBC drama Page Eight (2011).
As of 2013, Hare has received two Academy Award nominations, three Golden Globe Award nominations, three Tony Award nominations and has won a BAFTA Award, a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and two Laurence Olivier Awards. He has also been awarded several critics' awards such as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and received the Golden Bear in 1985. He was knighted in 1998.
I didn’t like this as much as I thought I would, though the first several times I watched the movie I was engrossed.
Michael Cunningham’s novel reads like a homage to Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, but I found David Hare’s screenplay is more about the struggles of choosing to live or die. In David Hare’s screenplay the story was not just about Virginia Woolf but about the three women whose lives will become intertwined.
Maybe I didn’t like this as much, because reading the novel changed how I saw the movie.
But it was still worth reading, it’s just different, and I am sure I will watch the movie many more times.
The Hours, based on the Man Booker Prize winner by Michael Cunningham 10 out of 10
Just as the original material is one of the best books in recent years, the film The Hours is one of the best motion pictures of the past decades.
It was nominated for a series of Oscars, including the most relevant ones for Best Film, Director, Writing, Supporting Actor and Actress and it won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Nicole Kidman. The Hours took the Golden Globe for the same artist and for Best Drama, BAFTAs and many other prizes.
There are three separate and yet intertwined stories, of Virginia Woolf aka Nicole Kidman, Laura Brown aka Julianne Moore and Clarissa Vaughan aka Meryl Streep.
Virginia Woolf is struggling with her depression - I have recently read Any Human Heart, by the fabulous William Boyd, and in this extraordinary novel, Mrs. Woolf is depicted as a racist, rather obnoxious, negative, unlikeable creature. The writer receives the visit of her sister, Vanessa Bell aka Miranda Richardson, and her noisy children, that find a fallen bird that would soon expire and will be buried with a flower, in the garden.
Virginia Woolf seems to have a permanent conflict with her servant, that does not like the idea of traveling to London, to get what her master wants for the visit of the sister and her children. Absent during the talk, the author decides not to kill the main character of her novel, Mrs. Dalloway.
Nevertheless, Laura Brown, a woman who lives in America, in the fifties, is determined to commit suicide, inspired to some extent by the reading of Mrs. Dalloway and the inadequacies of her life, the marriage to a man who seems so alien to her, Dan Brown aka John C. Reilly. Mrs. Brown is visited by her neighbor, Kitty aka Tony Collette, who may have a tumor in her womb and wants so much to live and have children, while the depressed Laura is about to kill herself, maybe.
The two woman kiss in an outre moment, then Laura Brown takes a room in a hotel, where she has taken her pills and maybe these will be her final Hours.
The third story takes place recently, in New York, where Clarissa Vaughan aka Meryl Streep is organizing a party for her friend, Richard Brown aka Ed Harris, who has won the most important poetry prize. Alas, he is dying of AIDS, sardonically, he claims this is the reason they declared him the winner, and he is unstable, suffers from memory loss, changes of moods and depression, to name just a few afflictions.
Clarissa is a lesbian living with Sally Lester aka Allison Janney - I happened to see a show where this excellent artist talked about the making of The Hours and how Cardinal the work with Meryl Streep has been. Meryl Streep has told Allison Janney that she has some advice and in the scene in which they kiss, she pulled the skin from the face of her partner, with a very good effect.
The Hours is not just formidable, it is outstanding, glorious, phenomenal and a pleasure to watch again... It was scheduled on one of the many film channels we have now - Alhamdulillah! - and it is probably the third time that I have enjoyed this Masterpiece. Posted 13th March 2019 by realini
Brilliant. Surprisingly unique adaptation of Michael Cunningham's novel. Hard to believe that two male writers understand the woman's mind so well, and the intricacies of a woman's life regarding timeless controvercial issues.
Just as amazing as the book and movie. Obviously they differ but if you enjoy one and appreciate analyzing their differences, strengths and weaknesses, then you'll enjoy this script.
Amazing screenplay adaptation of my favourite book. David Hare took a very challenging book created a visual and dialogue script with grace, emotion and compelling characters. A true gem.