Vita & Virginia is a 2019 biographical romance about the love affair between socialite and popular author Vita Sackville-West and literary icon Virginia Woolf.
Vita Sackville-West (Gemma Arterton) is good wife, married to author Harold (Rupert Penry-Jones), raising their boys but is fiercely independent, trying to discover who she really is, feeling the lines of sexuality loosely defined. She is a writer as well, popular in fact but is suppressed, finding herself drawn to the enigmatic Virginia Woolf (Elizabeth Debicki), an author herself that, when they meet at a party, feel a dynamic connection. Desperate to keep Woolf in her life, Vita writes often, detailing her feelings, wanting to meet again. Meanwhile, Woolf, also married, struggles with her thoughts of Vita while her steady mental breakdown leaves all of it in emotional instability, inspiring her to write one of her most famous novels.
Society is the ultimate villain in movies like this, especially that of the upper elite, where image is everything and roles are to be strictly adhered. And this is right where Vita exists, genuinely loving her husband but unable to hide a deeper need that consumes her. There is already a distorted history to she and Harold, one that Vita doesn’t attempt to conceal though her mother (Isabella Rossellini) forces her to push it to the corners. This leaves Vita in a sorted state of chaos where she tests the waters with light abandon, playing with the emotions and tenuous hold on security that Virginia holds tight.
There’s style aplenty here, with director Chanya Button – adapting the play by Eileen Atkins, who serves as co-writer – giving the near hundred year old story some modern flair, mostly in choices of some music, the film not trying to be secret about its flights of fancy. It works, mostly, the expectations of the genre feeling appropriately uprooted, or at least tugged upon in giving this a genuinely different feel. That doesn’t leave this unscathed though, the dips into visual unreality sometimes distracting from an earnest sense of authenticity it often gets hold of. It also plays a little loose with Virginia, the real writer plagued by mental issues that are here at best wistfully examined.
Either way, there’s more here to celebrate than turn away from, with two good performances that make dealing with some odd turns all the more acceptable. Debicki does good work as the pained writer, even if there are broad lines she if forced to fill in along the way. Arterton is clearly having some fun and is both delightful and troubling to watch, the dynamic between these women maybe not always accurate but at least entertaining. It’s never not interesting.
There’s a lot going on in and around the relationship of Vita & Virginia, and for what it wants to be, this is fun to watch, with all the right hooks and emotional ups and downs this should come packed with. For fans of movies set in this time period, it’s a real treat, the flowelry language and high society tit-for-tat is juicily engaging, with Arterton really taking this to the right levels. It may not be as deep as some might hope but it does satisfy and ought to encourage one to head out into the ‘net and find out more about this unique relationship.