Mrs. Dalloway

REVIEW
On a perfect day in 1923, memories of her youth course through the day's events as Mrs. Dalloway (Redgrave) prepares for another of her elaborate parties. In an ordered English garden, a young veteran makes his own peace with the ravages of shell shock; at a nearby bench, Mrs. Dalloway's rejected suitor of decades past indulges his own reminiscences. Director Gorris has captured Virginia Woolf's novel of that society of manners, a complex social structure unaware of its impending demise; juxtaposing it against the oncoming realities of the modern age. A dreamlike quality imbues recalled regrets, passions, conviction; defining relationships that survive time and distance, describing lives molded by unrecognized, subconscious yearnings fleetingly glimpsed in chaste kisses and unexpected flares of emotion. An intricately crafted film sparkled with superb portrayals, Mrs. Dalloway unerringly evokes a time recently, irrevocably past.