Hours (2013)

Before anything is stated, I’ve got one question – ‘How would you rate Paul Walker as an actor?’. I would’ve said, he was an average actor, or may be slightly above average. ‘Hours’ was one of the first Paul’s movies to come out after his untimely death. It’s said by some that it may be the reason for comparatively higher ratings than other movies of this genre or budget. I’ve got to disagree with them; this was a really good watch. It was easily Walker’s finest performance on the silver screen, and forced me to change my opinion regarding his acting abilities – he was a very good actor!

In a gist, this movie is about Nolan (Walker). It is set in 2005 when hurricane Katrina had hit the US. Nolan’s wife (Genesis Rodrigez) undergoes a premature delivery and dies in the process. The child is weak and would need a ventilator to keep it breathing. This is when Katrina strikes, causing widespread power failure and mass evacuations. Nolan chooses to standby his child which is sustained by a battery which has life of 3 minutes before it need a recharge. The whole story is about how a father does everything within his power to keep his child from dying.

The plot had just enough ingredients to make a watchable movie. Among the pluses, were a short and well knitted flashback and of course Paul Walker. The low production value was fairly obvious in some scenes and script could have been tighter. The direction though fairly well done for a first time director, was far from top class and the supporting cast was mediocre. This movie could have been better, but that can be said of almost any movie ever made.   

There have been very few actors who have taken an onus a whole film themselves- Banks in Castaway, more recently Bullock in Gravity and Suraj Sharma in Life of Pi. But they at least had the budget and top notch director to help them through, here it was Walker all the way. His understated style which conveyed so much without saying a thing was the hallmark of this role. My favorite scene of the movie happened to be in the first 10 minutes of the movie, when he was first told of his wife’s death. After seeing this, it almost felt like he was so wasted in Fast and Furious franchise. I am glad that we could see this side of Paul before he left us.

Verdict: 7/10