The Hours and About Schmidt come to the South Cotswolds (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

The Hours and About Schmidt come to the South Cotswolds

THE films touring village halls in the South Cotswolds during October are The Hours and About Schmidt.

The Hours, starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman and directed by Stephen Daldry, has a 12A certificate.

It is the story of three women searching for more potent, meaningful lives. Each is alive at a different time and place: all are linked by their yearnings and their fears.

Virginia Woolf, in a suburb of London in the early 1920s, is battling insanity as she begins to write her first great novel, Mrs. Dalloway.

Laura Brown, a wife and mother in Los Angeles at the end of the Second World War, is reading Mrs Dalloway and finding it so revelatory that she begins to consider making a devastating change in her life.

Clarissa Vaughan, a contemporary version of Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, lives in New York City today, and is in love with her friend Richard, a brilliant poet who is dying of AIDS.

Their stories intertwine, and finally come together in a surprising, transcendent moment of shared recognition.

About Schmidt (certificate 15) is directed by Alexander Payne and stars Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, June Squibb, Kathy Bates, Howard Hesseman, Len Cariou, Connie Ray, Harry Groener Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) has arrived at several of life's crossroads all at the same time.

He is retiring from a lifetime of service as an actuary for Woodmen of the World Insurance Company, and he feels utterly adrift.

His only daughter Jeannie (Hope Davis) is about to marry a blob. And his wife Helen (June Squibb) dies suddenly after 42 years of marriage.

With no job, no wife, and no family, Warren is desperate to find something meaningful in his thoroughly unimpressive life.

He sets out on a journey of self-discovery, exploring his roots across Nebraska in the 35-foot motor home in which he had planned to drive around the country with his late wife.

His ultimate destination is Denver, where he hopes to bridge the gulf between himself and his somewhat estranged daughter by arriving early to help with her wedding preparations.

Unfortunately, he hates the groom-to-be Randall (Dermot Mulroney), a profoundly mediocre, underachieving waterbed salesman.

To make matters worse, Warren is appalled by the free-spirited nature and boorish behavior of his soon-to-be in-laws (Kathy Bates and Howard Hesseman).

He is soon convinced that his new purpose in life is to stop his daughter's marriage

South Cotswolds Programme

The Hours comes to North Cerney Village Hall on Wednesday, October 1, Filkins Village Hall on Tuesday, October 7, Fairford Primary School on Wednesday, October 15, Withington Village Hall on Thursday, October 16, South Cerney Village Hall on Saturday, October 18, Winstone Village Hall on Tuesday, October 21, Preston Village Hall on Thursday, October 23 and Coln St Aldwyns Village Hall on Thursday, October 30.

About Schmidt is at Poole Keynes Village Hall on Friday, October 10 and Lechlade Memorial Hall on Sunday, October 19. Last month's film, Chicago is at Coln St Aldwyn's Village Hall today, September 25, at Preston tomorrow, September 26 and has its final showing at Chedworth Village Hall on Friday, October 3. The film begins rolling at 7.30pm and cost £2.50 per person. end