nurse betty ho hum comedy that failed to interest me that much. none of the characters werer particularly of interest or worthy of attention. or so i felt. i won't say more

the hours the hours was a brilliantly edited and acted movie, but as an adaptation of a ( from what i can tell ) intensly psychological movie it is naturally missing one thing: the thoughts of the characters. The actresses and actors did what they could, but ultimately, one is left wondering on the motives of various characters. I think the point was clear enough -- to live one's OWN life and avoid the cages of one's and others making ( here being of course quite glib and easy, I doubt writers nor filmmakers would want it so reduced ) -- so maybe it was not necessary, but for me there was a just a little missing preventing from it being a great peice of art.

adaptation speaking of adaptations however, this movie is brilliant, if only for the 3 or 4 levels of story that it tries to embed: the story of wild orchids and their adaptation and harvesting ( the movie being an "adaptation" of a book called the orchid thief ), the attempt to write an adaptation of the orchid thief, the story writer writing the orchid thief, as well as adaptation of plants, and people, and the creation of adaptations in terms of works of art, not to mention the process of writing a screen play and book, and the interesection of all those things.

If one tries to put all of it together it can seem quite bewildering a complex bewlidering self reflective structure. If one took out all those levels it would be a trite somewhat dumb story, but the way it all tied itself together is, to my mind, nothing short of genius.

I have new found respect for Nick Cage, Meryl Streep, and the people involved ( the screen writer, the writer of the orchid thief, and the orchid thief himself ) who must have agreed at some point to be so treated!