Mrs Dalloway review

Another period pic detailing the lives of the early 20th century's over-privileged. Although director Marleen Gorris' take on Virginia Woolf's novel of the same name is riddled with costume drama clichés (colour co-ordinated sets, irritating fops spouting useless witicisms - - some of the tactics we've come to recognise), it's Vanessa Redgrave's portrayal of Mrs Dalloway that makes this film worth the time and effort. Redgrave, marrying emotion with cool restraint, dominates the screen as the woman whose preparation for a party evokes memories of her youth and doubts about whether she wed the right man.

Writer Eileen Atkins remains faithful to Woolf's famed stream of consciousness dialogue, yet also makes it accessible to the modern-day audience. She invites us to step inside her internal world, a place that it is entirely believable and genuinely moving enough to tug at the heartstrings.