Mark Kermode reviews Virginia Woolf's Night & Day

[00:00:00]So Virginia Woolf's Night and Day, which is this sparky and despite the title very loose adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel. This is from British Iranian director Tina Gharavi who made the brilliant BAFTA nominated I Am Nasrine. She also helmed Queen Cleopatra in the TV thing which caused a stir because it had Adele James in the lead role and which had accusations of this is pushing an Afrocentric agenda. To which she replied that you can be pretty certain of one thing is that Cleopatra looked more like Adele James than Elizabeth Taylor.

[00:00:34]Fantastic So this new film is written adapted by Justin I think Waddell w a d d e l l Waddell you would say.

[00:00:43]Features ensemble cast which is Hayley Bennett, Timothy Tim Spall who we just heard from, Lily Allen, Jennifer Saunders, Jack Whitehall, Sally Phillips. So the novel apparently well I haven't read the novel centers around four main characters and raises the question of whether love and marriage do indeed go together like a horse and carriage. In the case of the film which is set in 1910 London it takes apparently some incidental threads from the novel which it then expands. As I said I only know this from reading the research on it because I haven't read the novel because I'm not very well read. So in this story Hayley Bennett is Katherine. She's an autodidact want to be astronomer who wants to go to Cambridge to study maths and the stars and her father played by Timothy Spall has other ideas. He wants her to marry William who is this kind of Tim nice but dim type played rather well I think by Jack Whitehall. She resists the proposal. Meanwhile her mother played by Jennifer Saunders has been working for years on this still incomplete biography of the late grandfather who was a poet and critic and she's being encouraged to cut it down radically to make it publishable and to this end they have brought in an editor Ralph played by Elias Barrack who is the antithesis of William.

[00:02:00]And then her horizons, Catherine's horizons, are broadened by a cousin, Cyril, who she with she she goes with Cyril to a men-only meeting of an astrological society. She's dressed as a man. Really, you ever see 9 1/2 Weeks? I know it's a strange comparison, but there's a scene in 9 1/2 Weeks in Kim which Kim Basinger dresses as a man to go out with Mickey Rourke. It's a kind of joke scene, but it's like one of those things about Yeah, she doesn't look like a man, but she's dressed as a man, therefore you have to assume that she gets into male-only spaces. Um she also, Catherine also, becomes friends with Mary Datchit, played by Lily Allen, who finds who is a you know a kind of a a much more outspoken, free-spirited figure. And through these kind of encounters, she starts to find ways to to challenge the assumptions of society and what you know what is and isn't possible. Now, if any of that sounds heavy, it's not meant to because you've seen the film as well. The tone of it is actually very very uh light. I don't mean lightweight, but I mean light. It's a very very enjoyable watch, and I really enjoyed the film. And when you look at it's interesting, when you look at the poster, the poster is quite smiley poster. It's got, you know, faces of people that you know, and they all seem to be sort of half smiling.

[00:03:09]But the thing that's important to say is that that doesn't mean that it doesn't have um darkness behind it because, you know, smiles, period costumes, all that stuff that we love, but it is dealing with some darker subject matter. And I think a lot of that is encapsulated by the fact that Haley Bennett is so good in the central role.

[00:03:28]She has got one of those faces that is able to telegraph um when somebody's smiling, but it looks you know that they're screaming on the inside. There's something about the way that she her facial expressions work that she's very very good at that. She's also very good at doing somebody who has lots to say, but isn't saying it because of the circumstances she's in just require her to you know to to be clipped. And all of that, you know, like, politely nodding in the affirmative. And I think all of that really helps the movie have this kind of balancing act between the stuff which is which is, you know, deep and uh got real emotional and political stuff going in it going on in it. And the stuff which is just really entertaining to watch. I mean, I think she the the the the the role not not simply allows Haley Bennett to shine, but absolutely demands that she does so because otherwise the film wouldn't work.

[00:04:21]As for Tina Gorvish, she's a terrific director. She's got wit, confidence, decept- deceptively light touch. I mean, I think the film, as I said, it feels breezy and entertaining even when it's dealing with with with some tough stuff.

[00:04:33]And, you know, you got the the title night and day. As that suggests, it's the balance between light and dark. It's the balance between bet- between [clears throat] the the things that are difficult and the things which are which are funny and and comedic. And I think it gets all those things really right. And I sent you a message saying, I, you know, I hoped you liked it. And you said, I did.

[00:04:51]>> Yes.

[00:04:52]>> Tell me what you liked about it.

[00:04:53]>> Well, I just Haley Bennett [clears throat] is who always reminds me of Jennifer Lawrence.

[00:04:59]>> Oh.

[00:04:59]>> Just visually.

[00:05:00]>> Okay.

[00:05:01]>> Um >> That's interesting.

[00:05:03]>> Yeah, I just I think I think she is incredibly uh versatile and very watchable. And it I thought the it felt like it was a true story. You know, it felt like the director had found this and they'd turned it into a drama. Whereas, as opposed to a a a novel by Virginia Woolf, which it didn't feel like at all. But then you did say it was you know, loosely adapted from ideas that that that came up in it. [laughter] So, it's a good I thought it was a good ensemble piece, you know, everyone Tim is great.

[00:05:32]>> He's but he is really great. I mean, he's great in everything. He can do absolutely anything. But the kind of the the the the the the gap between being pompous and malign is very because there are there are scenes in the film in which he is quite scary.

[00:05:47]>> Yes.

[00:05:48]>> You know, so he's not just this kind of figure of fun. He is There is an There is an edge to his authoritarianism.

[00:05:54]>> Yes. Oh, no, absolutely. And Jack Whitehall, who I'm quite happy not to to watch most of the time, but was exactly right.

[00:06:01]>> Yeah, I thought he was really well cast.

[00:06:02]And I I think he does it really well. I think he does that dim nice but dim role really well because it's it's hard to get the balance of that right and not just become a caricature. And I don't and I'm I'm not really familiar with much of his other work, but >> Yeah, and then there's just a hint of the uh as they've staged it, impending First World War, when one of the characters turns up in costume. You think, "Oh, yeah, okay, that's all about That's all about to come and and and change everything." But it felt like a great story that was being explained to me for the first time, even though it's not true story. It sort of has the essence of truth about it.

[00:06:36]>> Yes, and there is a there is a strong element of truth about its fiction.

[00:06:40]>> And the title is Virginia Woolf's Night and Day. It's not Night Is the title of the the title of the >> film on the posters is Virginia Woolf's Night and Day. And in fact, I think that's actually how it comes up on the BBFC site as well. So, yeah, that is the Yeah, Virginia Woolf's Night and Day is the full title.