Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of Michael Cunningham’snovel (itself inspired by Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway)cuts between single days in the lives of three womenspanning the 20th century. In 1923, Woolf is climbingthe walls of her Richmond home, plotting her noveland her escape. In the 1950s, suburban mom Lauradutifully bakes for a loving husband and son, but isslowly choking on frustrated desires. And in the hereand now, Clarissa is devoting her energies to a partyfor her first love, a poet in the final stages of AIDS.
If these women’s relationships trace anemancipatory arc, the film suggests Woolf’s insightsinto the human condition are as pertinent as ever.Bookended by suicides, it’s about the transienceof happiness, the dissatisfactions as well as theconsolations of love, time shared and time lost.

Time Out Film Guide