
London, summer 1923. Clarissa (Vanessa Redgrave), Member of Parliament Richard Dalloway's (Sir John Standing's) wife, sets out on a beautiful morning; she's shopping for flowers for her party that evening. At the same time Septimus Warren Smith (Rupert Graves), a young man who survived the battlefields of Europe, is suffering from a nightmarish delayed on-set form of shell shock. Clarissa's nearly-grown daughter is distant, and preoccupied. In the course of one day, Peter (Mi... (Full plot summary below)
Enjoy FREE movies and series with your Prime (USA) subscription or when you start a 30-day free trial!
Links compiled using automated software. Availability of offers subject to change / might be region specific / out of date.
London, summer 1923. Clarissa (Vanessa Redgrave), Member of Parliament Richard Dalloway's (Sir John Standing's) wife, sets out on a beautiful morning; she's shopping for flowers for her party that evening. At the same time Septimus Warren Smith (Rupert Graves), a young man who survived the battlefields of Europe, is suffering from a nightmarish delayed on-set form of shell shock. Clarissa's nearly-grown daughter is distant, and preoccupied. In the course of one day, Peter (Michael Kitchen), Clarissa's passionate old suitor, returns from India and is invited to her party, Septimus commits suicide, Clarissa relives a day in her youth (and her reasons for her choice of a life with the reliable Richard Dalloway).
Leave your thoughts about Mrs. Dalloway.
| Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumDirector Marleen Gorris and screenwriter Eileen Atkins have done a remarkable job of suggesting the inner mental jumble Woolf strove to convey and constructing an exterior narrative of luminous beauty. |
| New York TimesJanet MaslinBut the film, written by Phoef Sutton and Lisa-Maria Radano and directed by Richard Benjamin in a style cute enough to peel paint off the walls, can't do much to generate romantic sparks between its two young leads. |
| Deseret News (Salt Lake City)Jeff Vice[The] complex story structure is virtually impossible to reproduce on the screen. But thanks to Redgrave's dazzling turn and some other fine performances, Gorris and screenwriter Eileen Atkins come reasonably close. |
| VarietyEmanuel LevyA highly romantic, deeply melancholy drama, the film offers psychological and existential insights about the inevitable effects - and price - of life choices. |
| CinematterMadeleine WilliamsThere's probably a point to be made, but the film lacks the confidence to make it. |
| Film Journal InternationalDavid NohThe film never rises above the dull, comforting worthiness of a 'Masterpiece Theatre' production |
| CompuserveHarvey S. KartenThe entire ensemble, but especially Ms. Redgrave, convey the flights of feeling that entangle their lives, the sudden changes of fervor that make life both exciting and anxiety-ridden. |
| Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovCinematic soporific for the cynically reclined. Unalliteratively, it's a snooze. |
| User ReviewPeter B. RA dazzlingly accurate and juicy reproduction of the Virginia Woolf novel. |
| User ReviewAna ALovely movie! A proof that Mrs Dalloway does have a plot that can be narrated, although told in a poetical way in Virginia Woolf's novel. |