Mrs. Dalloway Review
by Seth Bookey (sethbook AT panix DOT com)May 26th, 1998
Mrs. Dalloway
(UK, 1997)
"Marriage is a disaster, particularly for women!" announces young Sally Seton (Lena Heady) to her friend, Clarissa Dalloway (Natascha McElhone), as they spend the summer lazing around the latter's estate. This is what Mrs. Dalloway (Vanessa Redgrave) remembers as she goes about her errands the day of her big party--coming up that evening. Is it such a disaster, though? That's part of what she considers forty years later, when she looks back on her life and the people to whom she was close when she had that conversation. There was her suitor Peter (Alan Cox), and Sally (another suitor of sorts), and finally, the stuffy, boring, dull Richard Dalloway (Robert Portal). Despite her exposure to different things and ideas, Clarissa chooses the safest route possible--the one she can best imagine herself following. Was it the right one? "I'm not even Clarissa anymore--I'm Mrs. Dalloway," she realizes.
*Mrs. Dalloway* explores this question while Clarissa goes about her errands and meets callers and mulls things over in the diegetic time of one day. Interwoven into this is the story of the shellshocked Septimus Warren Smith (Rupert Graves), who sees ghosts from the Great War everywhere, and for whom life is pretty unbearable. He and Clarissa don't meet, but he plays a big part in her life that day.
*Mrs. Dalloway* is a difficult movie to review. I almost would need to see it a second time to give it the attention it deserves. The performances are first rate--especially that of Vanessa Redgrave, who brought more to Mission: Impossible with a crinkle of her nose than the entire cast every could. The writing is also good. Thoughtful, yet funny. Let's face it, the stuffy mores and rituals of the British upper classes is very amusing to late 20th Century Americans, and always will be. Margaret Tyzack, as the brutal Lady Bruton, is horrifying and hilarious as the aristocrat who wants all unemployed young men sent to Canada if they cannot find jobs within a year--and might have it happen, as she has the ear of Members of Parliament.
"Relationships are just scratches on the surface," is one conclusion Clarissa eventually makes as she mulls over life, and her life. It's a shattering statement, but accurate. Despite their hopes and thoughts for her, Sally and Peter, forty years later, realize that perhaps Clarissa is happy, even if they don't understand her choices, or even ever knew her at all. This solitary contemplation of human nature is not for everyone, but seeing *Mrs. Dalloway* is a worthy endeavour nonetheless.
Directed with sensitivity by Marleen Gorris, Mrs. Dalloway's difficult stream-of-consciousness is fathomed. The movie is a nice contrast to Gorris' other big film, *Antonia's Line*, which followed several strong women making their own choices and eschewing the world of men.
Based on the novel by Virginia Woolf with screenplay by Eileen Atkins.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 1998, Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021 [email protected]; http://www.panix.com/~sethbook
More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html
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