Based on Virginia Woolf’s novel Night and Day, the subject matter feels as relevant today as it did when it was published back in 1919.
Katherine Hilbery (Haley Bennett) is an independent free-spirited woman who has a love of astronomy. Forced by her controlling father (Timothy Spall), who believes that a woman’s place is in the home and her only purpose is to marry some eligible bachelor, into an engagement with family friend William (Jack Whitewall). Katherine becomes torn between her ambitions and the demands of her overbearing father.
Trying to find some independence Katherine joins a suffragette group, led by Mary Datchet (Lily Allen) and it’s here that she meets working-class editor Ralph Denham (Elyas M'Barek), who is assisting her mother, Mrs Hilbery (Jennifer Saunders) with a family biography. Denham being the voice of reason and the one who encourages Katherine to chase her dreams.
The script by Justine Waddell can be slightly plodding at times and the casting can be a bit of a hit or miss, Both Saunders and Whitehall never look comfortable in their respective roles. Whitehall in particular struggles to hold his own with some of the better actors in the cast.
On the plus side Spall is as good as he always is however it’s Bennett’s performance that really holds the film together, mesmerising in just about every scene that she’s in, she’s never been better and her performance is reason enough to want to see Night and Day.
Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day is a touching and at times moving portrait of a young woman trying to find her way in difficult world. It gets a limited UK release on the 19th June and is certainly worth searching out.
