I know that this was adapted from a successful play and somebody obviously gave a huge amount of attention to re-creating the period atmosphere and successfully exploiting the transition from stage to film by providing some awe-inspiring photography, scenery and sets, but they lost both my wife and me almost at the beginning by the dialogue -- every line seems to have been written with the intention of eliciting a response of "my, wasn't THAT profound!" from the audience.
While I'm sure that the written correspondence between the principals actually did employ such language (they were both writers, after all), I can't believe that they spoke to each other (and to the other persons portrayed in the film) in such a manner uninterruptedly. After a while, you begin to long for somebody to make a less poetic/witty comment for once; unfortunately the only person who speaks directly and to the point is Lady Sackwell, Vita's mother, who is obviously the villain of the piece, so the viewer begins to equate directness with nastiness.
Review of Vita & Virginia
