In 1941 the famous poet and writer Virginia Wolfe would leave a not for her husband and walk out into the river and drown herself. She claimed to have been hearing voices and was thought to be crazy at the time. This movie is about three different women in three different time eras. The first being Virginia Wolfe herself in England in 1923, eighteen years before her death. Her husband has moved her out into the country and away from the hustle and bustle of London in hopes of restoring her sanity. There he has begun a printing press so Virginia can publish her works and he can edit other manuscripts sent into him as a source of income. Their relationship is troublesome at best as he loves her but she acts odd and strange at times and he is almost liker her guardian having to tell her when to eat.

The Second woman is Laura Brown a Californian housewife in 1951. She too is struggling with her sanity as she is finding it hard to cope as a housewife and mother in the 1950’s. She is lost and does not know what to do. She contemplates suicide and struggles to raise her son while she is pregnant with her second child.

The third woman Clarissa Vaughan is a New York City editor in 2001. She is openly gay and lives with her lover and is taking care of another gay friend who has contracted HIV and is dying. She feels she is his only lifeline and she feeds off him in help to sort her own troubled life. Her friend has just won a great prize for a lifetime of work of poems and she is trying to honor him with a party while struggling to cope with her own life. All three women’s lives and stories are wound together as they each struggle with their own problems and try and find their own sanity that seems to be slipping away from them.

For me this movie was very hard to review. I found the plot and story almost monotonous at times as it struggles along ever so slowly with no action happening on the screen. It could become boring at times as I found it hard for me to emphasize with the character and thereby be able to care what happened to them and to want to follow along with their progress. But on the other hand I can see how some people especially women could be enthralled by the story as it deals with life and the reasons for living and to keep on going. At times I was curious as to what would happen and where the story was going but I think the movie lost me in the beginning with its very slow and confusing start. The movie is moving towards a goal that as it progresses into the story it begins to tie up all the loose ends that confound you in the beginning. But if you are lost and not interested because of the slow start of the movie you may find it difficult to get reinvolved in the story once it does start going. The acting was superb in the movie as all three female roles did wonderful jobs at their respective parts. Meryl Streep stole the show in my opinion, as her performance was the most poignant and stunning. This movie is not for everyone as many people will be split down the middle of whether the like or are just plain bored by it. I found myself interested at times and at other times I found myself bored. If you want a very deep and thought-provoking drama that moves at a very slow pace this movie is for you otherwise you may not like it.
3 stars out of 5