Mrs Dalloway is based on the famous Virginia Woolf novel of the same name. The novel is mostly the thoughts and feelings of a respectable married lady named Mrs Clarissa Dalloway, and there’s not a great deal of action. Therefore, transferring this to film must have been a difficult task, as what makes for compelling reading does not necessarily make compelling viewing. Director Marleen Gorris did a good job here though, and the film manages to express a lot of Mrs Dalloway’s most complex thoughts and feelings.

The stream of thoughts that are the crux of the novel are transferred to the film through the use of a voiceover. Vanessa Redgrave, who plays the heroine Mrs Clarissa Dalloway, does the majority of the narration. The plot of the film revolves around her and an ordinary day in her life in 1923 London. She is preparing for a party that she is hosting that evening for members of high London Society. It becomes clear through the voiceover that she hosts a lot of parties and it is one of her greatest enjoyments. Although this may seem a little mundane, we see through flashbacks as she’s thinking, that her life was not always so confined. As a young woman, before she decided to marry the politician Richard Dalloway, there were many other options available to her. Her friend Peter Walsh, who she adored, was completely in love with her, and wanted to marry her and take her travelling with him. She also had a good friend named Sally, and one night they shared a kiss that she has never forgotten about.

The young Clarissa (Natascha Mcelhone) decided to take the safe option though and married Richard Dalloway, who was considered a little dull, but made her feel safe. The voiceover tells us that after many years of marriage, Clarissa feels she has lost her individuality and is only known as Mrs Richard Dalloway, the wife of the politician. Although she never direcectly says she wishes she hadn’t married him, it is clear that she regularly asks herself the question ‘what if?’

There is also a sideline plot in the film which follows war veteran Septimus Warren Smith. He lives in the same part of London with his wife. They are going through a rough time, as he is suffering from delayed shell-shock. One minute he will seem fine, and the next minute he has delusions of his friends who died in battle and talks about killing himself. This part of the plot ends in tragedy. It is important to the film because it seems to strike a chord with Clarissa when she hears about it, and it gives us further insight into her character.

Although Mrs Dalloway isn’t the most thrilling of films as the plot is relatively simple and lacking excitement, it is definitely worth watching. It will probably make more sense to those who have already read the novel, but I think it does have qualities that even people unfamiliar with the story could enjoy. It reveals the thoughts and feeling of a type of character that films generally don’t dwell on, a respectable housewife in her 50s. Her pleasures are simple, but they are all she knows, and it was interesting to see her looking back on her life and watch her make the decisions that planned out her life.

Dir: Marleen Gorris

Starring: Vanessa Redgrave, Natascha Mcelhone, Rupert Graves