'Hours' Trailer

Set in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, 'Hours' is about a man who, after the power fails, must keep his newborn daughter alive in a ventilator by continually charging a battery that only lasts three hours before needing to be recharged using a hand-cranked generator.

This is the kind of story that, if based on something that actually happened, is riveting but, if it's fiction, tends to make it hard to accept. The premise seems cheap, like it's taking advantage of a real tragedy to sell tickets to a movie. People may feel played. Think 'The Impossible' if those specific events never happened, if that family's ordeal was made up by a writer. '127 Hours' might make a more pointed example.

'Hours' looks like fiction (taken from a short story/outline by director Eric Heisserer). However, something like this happened. I remember stories about doctors and nurses staying at a hospital to care for patients after the power failed. The problem is, the story everyone will remember will be about the hospital staff who allegedly euthanized patients.

There may have been more than one story, certainly. New Orleans is a big city. There are a lot of hospitals. There may have been an heroic event, or several, but people won't remember those. That won't do much for this movie.

Trailer gets under your skin to be sure, but some might be turned off. Set to rollout at SXSW in March, so we'll get some feedback then.



















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