IR Film Review: VIRGINIA WOOLF’S NIGHT & DAY [Quiver]
Based on Virginia Woolf’s second novel, "Night & Day" follows Kit/Katherine (here played by Cyrano’s Emily Bennett) and her pursuits and pursuing education and her love of physics and astronomy while existing in a backwards world not of her choosing. Given a slightly more modern touch with a touch of subtlety including a Woolf cameo, it shows the push and pull of the time period. Like “Radioactive” in a certain way (that film starred Rosamund Pike), Bennett has the balance but also the approach needed for these kinds of hybrid-period pieces (like the more experienced Pike). Her sadness and emotions show on her face readily and yet she is still very determined. Jack Whitehall plays her slightly clueless fiancé/friend who is trying but doesn’t quite get her because he lives in the present. His path leads her to a collection of women open to the possibilities of furthering education. Bennett captures frustrated well without being angry which is the trick.
Timothy Spall (looking trim) and Jennifer Saunders (of AbFab fame) play her parents stuck between expectations of the time and a hard place. Kit has a comrade in her cousin, who himself has a secret to keep but also something to hide in the time they have together. The film takes place around of the time of Hailey’s Comet which acts like a motif for the bigger idea of the film. The question is a push and pull of what should be done to what can be done. Kit’s talk in front of the Cambridge review board is powerful but also show she understands its constraints. Kit is not perfect but she is intelligent and strong. When she goes to a female mentor whom she knows wrote most of her husband’s papers, she is met with resistance from her own because in that day and age rebelling against the status quo was extremely hard. It is hard in a different way today but it is always interesting in our current time frame to see what a difference a century makes. “Night & Day” is Virginia Woolf’s mediation on expectation and women’s motivations in the turn of the 20th century knowing things had to change. It was just a matter of perspective and practicality. Kit helps take the first steps and thereby inspired more of a generation. 83%/B
By Tim Wassberg
