THE Hours (12A) cuts back and forth between three different times and three women facing similar dilemmas.

In 1923, writer Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) struggles to complete her novel, Mrs Dalloway, while coping with estrangement from husband Stephen Dillane. A meeting with her sister convinces her to consider the ultimate act of self-sacrifice.

In 1951, housewife Julianne Moore is affected by reading Mrs Dalloway. She re-evaluates her humdrum life and realises how unhappy she is.

In 2001, lesbian book editor Meryl Streep plans a party to celebrate an award won by poet friend Ed Harris. She is hoping to blot out her anxieties over her relationship with her partner.

Every frame of the film is meticulously crafted, and the cast expertly wrings out the maelstrom of emotions. Kidman submerges herself in Virginia's melancholy and allows us into the mind of her tortured genius.

Moore is heartbreaking and Streep is superb as ever.

Stephen Daldry's consummate direction stitches these stories together into a fluid narrative, investing the story with striking imagery.