Mrs. Dalloway (1997)

Let's be realistic.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Let me start in this way: Woolf is a writer who is almost impossible to put on screen.It is so because there are hardly any plots in her works--the emphasis is on thoughts, memories, reflections, parallels and contrasts. Even taking this into consideration, I think this film is unsuccessful. First of all, the authors allow themselves too many liberties with the original text.Perhaps the greatest of them is that Clarissa and Septimius MEET in the film ( through the window of the shop). This spoils the whole idea of Woolf that her two main characters NEVER MEET in the novel. This is extremely important in the book and is ,I believe, one of the main themes in it.Second: at the end it is suggested in the film that Clarissa also contemplates suicide which again is NOT present in the book. And there are other "departures" from the text...These are not trifles as they change the whole perspective of the viewer. I am sure that most viewers would find the film boring and dealing with banalities, especially if they have not read the book. Septimius is unconvincing and he should have been EXPLAINED to the spectators more. In general the film leaves me with a taste of superficiality. There are lots of themes in it and important themes at that. But they all are presented very superficially and light-heartedly. As a whole the film can be classified as some kind of comedy and the funny, entertaining music also adds to this impression. But this is horribly wrong I think! Virginia Woolf's works are NEVER comedies and should never be presented as such I think. I myself have an ambiguous attitude to Woolf: I both like and dislike her but I have always considered her a serious author. This film will convince viewers that probably she is not worth reading which is a pity.

This movie is a good transposition of the Woolf's novel. Woolf is famous for the almost complete lack of plot of her books (leaving apart the first one, some very few short stories, and Orlando), being interested in writing about what characters are thinking of, and not about what they're actually doing or saying. It was a challenge for the director and the cast, but the result is OK. The weak points are: the first sequence (a short narration about Septimus during second world war: everyone can understand what happened without looking at it, and its "style" is somehow inconsistent with the rest of the movie) and the music, which was rather poorly chosen or written (in a movie in which there is little dialog and a lot of close up of people "thinking" the soundtrack should deserve greater attention). Very good casting and acting (everyone, not just the two leading roles) and gorgeous cinematography. However, if you like movies in which something does actually happen, don't choose this one. And if you are looking for something that perfectly "capture" the complex description of the feelings of Clarissa and Septimus... read a book and don't watch a movie.

Since I was just finishing the book, `Mrs. Dalloway' by Virginia Woolf, I was excited to see that it was on one of the movie channels last weekend. What I encountered, however, is a film that was boring, incomprehensible and non-sensical. One cannot entirely blame the film, it tried the best it could with the material it had, but when the source material is Virginia Woolf, and is almost entirely written in stream-of-conscience style with extended periods of internalizing and little actual dialogue, one would certainly think that there shouldn't be a film made from it just because a film can be made from it. Vanessa Redgrave, who plays the title character, does not deserve any blame for the failure of this film, nor do any of the other actors. It is just simply a film that could not intelligibly be made from the story that Woolfe wrote, and should not have even been attempted. Don't watch the movie, read the book. --Shelly

Compared to 1984 and other boring tripe this film is entertaining. I like how they show the class structure, how one trys not have norms and standards. My wife thought they were snobs, but after years of working with people who act like the audience on the Jerry Springer show I found this movie quite refreshing. I would like to tell Mrs Dalloway life is not that bad, and for her friend to get over her. You tried to make her a person she is not. When you do that you end up with a unhappy life. 7 out of 10