Despite a pretension that packs quite a wallop, “The Hours” is an exceptional film.

The mark of a good movie is the changing feelings one experiences while watching — be it anything from the way a musical composition underplays a moment of emotion, or the way an actor’s facial expression penetrates into his or her audience.

“The Hours” invokes these changes of mood — it’s a film that always presents a surface feeling but never beats the dead horse. The way I feel about it is always different from a previous viewing.

Three women’s fates are decided upon in a single day: Meryl Streep plays Clarissa Vaughan, portraying a modern Mrs. Dalloway, who prepares a party for her dying friend, Richard (played by Ed Harris).

Julianne Moore, in a role rich with gestures and expression, contemplates suicide in 1950s Los Angeles. In 1920s England, Virginia Woolf (Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman) begins to write the novel “Mrs. Dalloway.”

Although it features some moments of overacted gloss by its supporting players, the three leads, played by Streep, Moore and Kidman, all sparkle in facets of despair, fragility or in Streep’s case, a contradiction between the two and confidence.

Along with its three stellar performances, the film showcases excellent editing by Peter Boyle, a beautiful score by composer Philip Glass, and succeeds with the intelligent and deeply textured script by David Hare — a script leagues better than the Robert Harwood Oscar-winner “The Pianist.”

DVD Features:

“The Hours” DVD is a movie dork’s dream.

Two commentaries — one by director Stephen Daldry and “The Hours” author Michael Cunningham, the other by Streep, Kidman and Moore — highlight this feature-packed collector’s edition DVD.

Daldry dominates opposite Cunningham, a soft-spoken commentary rich with numerous anecdotes of production, making even the most minuscule of details interesting.

Those seeking a giggly commentary by this film’s three stars will be disappointed. The three women, recorded separately, all provide insights to their various challenges and rewards of their roles.

Four feauturettes, one on the three actresses, a can’t-miss conversation with composer Philip Glass, a vignette on the novel-to-screenplay process, and a half-hour documentary on Virginia Woolf, consume the rest of the disc.