If Arterton is playing to the back row of the theatre, Debicki is playing to the people who could afford the front. Arterton goes broad in line reading and facial expressions, but Debicki goes too far in the other direction. The idea that Vita should be a more vibrant, outgoing personality to counter Virginia’s reticent, wallflower personality is fine on a creative level, but it leads to a film with two performances at its center that feel like they’re from different movies. Dalloway when she becomes infatuated with Vita, the yin to her yang. She’s dealing with mental illness and anxiety over the publication of Mrs. The Woolf captured here is just starting to become the one we know today. Vita is coming off a scandalous affair with another woman, although it’s more of an issue for society and her mother (played forgettably by Isabella Rossellini) than her husband ( Rupert Penry-Jones), with whom she seems to be in a “don’t ask, don’t tell” variation on open marriage.

There’s an immediate connection between the two-although one of the many problems in Eileen Atkins’ script, based on her own play and co-written with director Chanya Button, is that it’s one of those films that’s constantly telling us about the spark between its leading ladies instead of actually showing it. Gemma Arterton plays Vita Sackville-West, a famous socialite and writer in her own right, who meets a woman already famous but soon to be legendary, Virginia Woolf, played by the great Elizabeth Debicki.

The waves virginia woolf sparknotes