Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day Review

Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day is a multi-national adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s second novel, as it shows a young woman fighting against the patriarchal standards of her time.

Katharine Hilbery (Haley Bennett) is a budding astronomer in 1910. Her dream is to go to Cambridge and study physics, but she has to fight the male-dominated elite of the scientific world and her chauvinistic father (Timothy Spall), who wants her to get married.

Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day has come out during a busy period of big theatrical releases. In the UK, it has been released at the same time as Toy Story 5, and is currently competing against Masters of the Universe and Disclosure Day. This period drama has been released as counterprogramming. Older ladies made up the bulk of the audience I was with.

Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day was a good-looking film. There were high production values regarding the costumes, production design, and use of visual effects for the star gazing. The film felt authentic when showing the busy streets of London, industrial sites, and stately locations. Katharine had a more masculine sense of dress, so she stood out wearing shirts and ties when other women wore dresses.

Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day wore its heart on its sleeve. It was an overtly feminist film where a woman was battling the standards of her time. She had to fight her father and the scientific establishment. She had to pretend to be a man when entering the British Astronomy Society or when she wrote her application to Cambridge. Katharine was determined and headstrong, as shown when she refused help from a man when she was pulling a pram with her scientific materials. The character of Lady Margaret Huggins (Frances Barber) showed Katharine a potential future because Lady Huggins’ only option was co-authoring papers with her husband, even though she did most of the work.

The film did emphasise that the times were changing. Katharine socialised with political radicals and was a Suffragette. A leading suffragette, Mary Datchet (Lily Allen), supported Katharine by lending her space to study and write. Despite male dominance, women were slowly making progress. Katharine’s cousin, Cyril (Misia Butler), said they were born in the wrong century since they were characters with modern ideals. Cyril was gay in the film and was shown to be someone ahead of his time, having to battle prejudice.

Despite its classical presentation, Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day sought to modernise some elements. Most noticeable was the music, as the film had an electronic, trance-style score and even featured a pop song during the end credits. It was out of place considering the type of film it was.

Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day was only 98 minutes long, but the novel was 442 pages. Even people who haven’t read the novel could tell that the film was a condensed version of the story. Because of this, some storylines were underdeveloped as they were quickly looked at, like Katharine’s mother (Jennifer Saunders) working on a novel, Katharine’s fiancé, William (Jack Whitehall), having a spark with her cousin, Cassandra (Camilla Borghesani), and Katharine having a heart-to-heart with Cyril’s partner. On the other end of the spectrum, there was a scene where Mary was talking with a man, saying he enjoyed Christmas even though she was a Communist. It felt like a scene that could have easily been cut from the film. The film was classed as a romance, but it was focused on Katharine’s scientific endeavours.

Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day did have a solid cast. Bennett was strong in the lead and performed with a convincing English accent. There were plenty of recognisable faces like Spall, Saunders, and Whitehall. Spall was loathsome, and Whitehall was likeable as the awkward and awful poet who wanted to marry his best friend. Allen gave a good presence as a political campaigner and matched Katharine for feminist ideals. The character of Ralph Denham was changed to be German, and he was played by Austrian actor Elyas M’Barek. His casting felt like it was mandated by the German backers. Considering the film took place in 1910, it led to thoughts that things might get a bit awkward for Ralph in four years.

There was plenty to admire in Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day because of the acting, production values, and themes, but it would have been better served as a miniseries, which would have allowed the subplots to breathe.