Most of this review was written during SXSW, to be part of a recap of movies that sort of slipped through the cracks during a busy festival. I’ve only added sections to expand on my thoughts with specific examples from the film and make it a standalone review. It was not significantly rewritten for content and my opinion of the film has not changed.
I love survival movies where the survivors have to find supplies, so Hours is exactly what I’m looking for and it even found a new twist to add. It was conceived more broadly to tell the story of a father’s love and determination in the midst of a relevant crisis of recent history, and it does that. I’m just going from the micro to the macro in my interpretation.
Nolan (Paul Walker)’s baby is born premature and his wife (Genesis Rodriguez) dies in childbirth. The baby has to be kept on a ventilator for 48 hours, but then Hurricane Katrina hits. As the doctors and patients evacuate and the power goes out, Nolan stays with his baby and finds a hand-cranked generator that can provide him three minutes of power at a time. Not only is he stranded in the hospital alone, he only has three minute bursts to go explore the hospital for supplies, food or a way to call for help.
You may be thinking: how could a hospital staff leave a patient and a special needs newborn unattended? Hey, it’s Katrina Kaos, so I buy it. Plus, movies aren’t about what would really happen. They’re about the ultimate what if? Hours is a disaster movie in a maternity ICU. What if someone were in that situation? Wouldn’t it be awesome to see him persevere? Things go from bad to worse, Nolan has to keep solving problems and there are so many to solve. The charge starts to dwindle down from three minutes so he has less and less time to leave the ventilator.
The hours are clear in movie time. We understand the progression of days and the state of exhaustion and starvation in Nolan. I think they fudged the minutes though. By the time the generator is down to a 1:45, Nolan definitely spent over two minutes roaming the halls. It’s okay though, because it emotionally works.
Hours is Paul Walker’s Cast Away. Walker commands the screen for the bulk of the film where he’s alone. I know there were Paul Walker haters are out there, but I think he had that everyman quality, albeit a very good-looking everyman, so we can relate to his struggle. I mean, he’s mostly acting with a box, a ventilator with a fictional baby inside. I always thought Wilson the volleyball was a cheat because they wouldn’t make a Tom Hanks movie with no dialogue, but in Hours at least it makes sense that Nolan would talk to his infant baby.
Hours is an intense and riveting thriller about a life or death situation, in a tight 90-some minutes (97 with credits if we’re being technical). As the directorial debut of screenwriter Eric Heisserer, it blends his sense of structure and emotion. I was on board with this movie no questions asked, but if any of you need more convincing, I hope I’ve done the trick.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
