Mrs. Dalloway

Human Events, Mar 13, 1998

MRS. DALLOWAY

Quality: *** Acceptability: -1

RATING: PG-13

RELEASE: February 1998

STARRING: Vanessa Redgrave, Rupert Graves and Natascha McElhone

DIRECTOR: Marleen Gorris

BASED ON THE NOVEL BY: Virginia Woolf

DISTRIBUTOR: First Look Pictures

GENRE: Drama

CONTENT: Romantic, anthropocentric worldview of a woman reflecting on her life; no obscenities and no profanities; implied suicide by impaling; no sex; brief nudity as character runs naked to the bathroom.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Older children and adults

SUMMARY: Mrs. Dalloway, based on Virginia Woolf's 1935 novel by the same name, depicts a day in the life of Mrs. Dalloway (Vanessa Redgrave), who muses about her life when preparations for a party trigger memories. She flashes back to her friendship with Sally and her ambivalence as to whether to marry Peter, a free-spirited man, or Richard, who is more conventional. The movie flashes back to scenes of Mrs. Dalloway in her youth, where, as 18-year-old Chlorissa (Natasha McElhone), she enters into a conventional marriage with Richard.

With superb cinematography and costume design, the film successfully mirrors upper-class English society. Redgrave as the mature Mrs. Dalloway and McElhone as Chlorissa give great performances. Marred by brief nudity and emotional elements pertinent to adult discussions about marriage, Mrs. Dalloway also leaves a spiritual void, as Mrs. Dalloway confesses to believing that religious fanaticism leaves a person callous, when her daughter wants to get involved with missionary work. Thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating, Mrs. Dalloway provides a fulfilling emotional journey as it enables the audience to examine their own lives as they vicariously experience the decisions Mrs. Dalloway made in hers.