Hours (***)
Directed
by: Eric Heisserer
Starring:
Paul Walker, Genesis Rodriguez
Seen:
April 10th 2014
***
Out of ****
Seeing
a movie in which the leading cast member recently died always lends an unnerving
touch, and for the first few minutes of Hours, that was exactly the case. The
movie starts off with scenes of distress in a hospital, interspersed with
scenes of romance, flashbacks to earlier times. It’s to Paul Walker’s credit
that the eerie feeling of seeing him in this movie after his death wears off very
quickly as his performance lifts the viewer into the story and out of thoughts
of him not being around anymore, he really does a great job in Hours.
When
Abigail Hayes (Rodriguez) goes into labour five weeks early, her husband Nolan
(Walker) races her to the hospital where she is immediately rushed into an
operating room. While waiting on their doctor, the ground-floor waiting room is
cleared as Hurricane Katrina hits with a vengeance and Nolan, through it all,
starts replaying memories of him and Abigail; among other memories the one of meeting
her, memories that permeate the rest of the movie. The doctor returns with
terrible news; Abigail has died, but Nolan now has a baby girl. Nolan’s first
thought is that he doesn’t know her, and throughout the movie flashbacks to his
wife serve as a connecting thread between Nolan and his little girl. The baby
is in a ventilator, and according to the doctor will be able to breathe on her
own in 48 hours.
Nolan’s
problems start as the power goes out and the backup generators also fail when
the hospital is flooded. The battery that powers the ventilator for his little
girl, Abigail, can only hold a charge of three minutes before requiring a manual
recharge, and her ventilator is not mobile, thus tethering Nolan to the Abigail’s
room. This gives him only short opportunities to find a generator for the
battery, food, and a way out of this mess. As time goes on, the battery
degrades more, and the recharge he manages to achieve gives him less and less
time. Nolan must face the elements, his terrible time constraint, and criminals
in the hospital in this nightmare ordeal in an effort to save his daughter’s
life.
As already
mentioned, Paul Walker does a stellar job of carrying this movie with only small
opportunities given to other actors in minor roles. His recent death gives the
movie an almost ghost-like emotional strength. The tension is well crafted and
just as well maintained throughout the movie. The hospital is fittingly dark
and depressing, and it’s a big surprise when Nolan runs outside with a flare to
flag a helicopter and we see bright daylight for the first time. There are some
inconsistencies regarding what Nolan achieves during different similar (or even
shorter) time frames that can grate on the viewer’s conscience, but if you decide
to accept this as acceptable creative licence, the movie really delivers quite
a touching punch more than once. Through sweet romantic moments and harrowing
survivalist elements, Hours will stay with me for quite a while. I enjoyed
Hours, it’s a good movie.
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