"Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates melancholy from happiness."
Maybe if we lived for hundreds of years, we would feel the freedom to express our true natures. Is our true "self" inextricably tied to our sexuality, or is there something deeper that's independent of it, and what binds us to binary ways of thinking anyway? What does it mean to be a man or a woman, and can we live in more unconstrained ways, embracing the progress that will come as cultural norms inevitably change?
The film adaptation of Virginia Woolf's stunning book asks some of these questions, though unfortunately doesn't quite live up to it. For one thing, I don't think it was necessary for Swinton to break the 4th wall, or for the giant intertitles that announce chapters like DEATH LOVE, POETRY, etc. More importantly, I think what's missing is more of a view across the centuries, with changes in London, society, and scientific progress that the book conjures up while sometimes sentimentally recalling memories from long ago. It's that sort of thing that magnifies the feeling of our transience and yet shows the thread of humanity across the years.
To its credit, the film gives us some wonderful period details (like those ice skates early on!), shows the deep misogyny of the past, and challenges simplistic thinking about gender. It didn't fully connect with me, but for the effort to adapt this novel, with its controversial themes, and for what it did deliver, it's worth seeing.
Maybe if we lived for hundreds of years, we would feel the freedom to express our true natures. Is our true "self" inextricably tied to our sexuality, or is there something deeper that's independent of it, and what binds us to binary ways of thinking anyway? What does it mean to be a man or a woman, and can we live in more unconstrained ways, embracing the progress that will come as cultural norms inevitably change?
The film adaptation of Virginia Woolf's stunning book asks some of these questions, though unfortunately doesn't quite live up to it. For one thing, I don't think it was necessary for Swinton to break the 4th wall, or for the giant intertitles that announce chapters like DEATH LOVE, POETRY, etc. More importantly, I think what's missing is more of a view across the centuries, with changes in London, society, and scientific progress that the book conjures up while sometimes sentimentally recalling memories from long ago. It's that sort of thing that magnifies the feeling of our transience and yet shows the thread of humanity across the years.
To its credit, the film gives us some wonderful period details (like those ice skates early on!), shows the deep misogyny of the past, and challenges simplistic thinking about gender. It didn't fully connect with me, but for the effort to adapt this novel, with its controversial themes, and for what it did deliver, it's worth seeing.