Vita & Virginia

Released Aug 23, 2019

1 hr. 50 min.

Biography

Romance

Drama

LGBTQ+

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41%

96 Reviews

Tomatometer

55%

50+ Ratings

Audience Score

A love affair develops between author Vita Sackville-West and literary icon Virginia Woolf, inspiring one of Woolf's greatest works.

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Critics Consensus

Vita & Virginia takes a well-acted and initially intriguing look at the relationship between its real-life protagonists, but is undone by unsatisfying storytelling.

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Crystal J

I found the screenplay wonderful; especially how it used the actual letters between Vita and Virginia. The direction, lighting, soundtrack and setting were all spot on. Elizabeth Debicki was utterly brilliant and deserved all of the praise she received. As someone who has read and studied about Virginia for decades, I believe her portrayal is probably the best ever. My rating for this movie would have been a 4.5 but for Gemma Arterton, who was totally and completely and devastatingly wrong for Vita. She's a good actress but she simply doesn't have the intelligence, pure aristocratic entitlement, butch sensuality or even the height, to be able to pull off such a dynamic woman who was Vita Sackville-West. She should have known that immediately. This was made all the more laughable by her crazy siliconed lips she sported throughout the film. It made the last tragic break up scene, where you see those enlarged lips in profile, incredibility funny i/o of moving. I hope this screen play gets another chance one day before I die. It's truly worth if if cast right for BOTH women.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

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Merrick S

Virginia Woolf's rather scandalous personal life was a harbinger of today's obsessions with identity, sexuality, power, class, artifice and honesty. The script, based largely on her intimate communications with her lover, has an immediacy, poignancy, and intelligence almost entirely lacking in today's film. Absorbing and emotionally powerful. No superheroes or explosions--adult entertainment.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/11/22

Full Review

Audience Member

I gave this movie 3 stars mainly for Elizabeth Debicki's portrayal of Virginia, which was illuminating, the cinematography, the incorporation of the letters (which were brilliant) and the Bloomsbury cast who were perfect. The absolute biggest disappointment was the casting of Gemma Arterton as Vita. I'm sure she is a competent actor but casting such a feminine, demur actor to portray Lady Vita Sackville-West is like casting Woody Allen to play Cary Grant. It could never work in a serious biopic. This casting was acerbated by the height difference between Arterton and Debicki; a difference that in reality did not exist. Vita's height is extremely important to the power and presence she had. The fact that this was the 1920s Vita - when according to Leonard she was at the peak of her virility and power - makes it even more horrible that they cast Arterton. Arterton's comical, silicone lips do not help and are testimony to the herculean acting skills that Debicki must possess to pull off such serious acting in their presence. It gets worse as the movie progresses as Arterton's Vita comes across merely as a bored, spoiled, suburban housewife who has a side hobby in writing. Lady Virginia Sackville-West belonged to one of the oldest noble families in Great Britain and all of the entitlement, power, poise that goes with that never appears in this film. Arterton's VIta is so passive that it makes the film's one sex scene seem totally implausible. At the end of the film one is left wondering how on Earth a genius, even one so brilliantly portrayed, could fall for this Vita. Again - just heartbreaking because this film would have been so good if not just for one disastrous casting error.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

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Audience Member

It was...strange. The choice of soundtrack being the weirdest thing, which I understand was supposed to add a certain effect but to me it just didn't fit at all. Elizabeth Debicki played Virginia perfectly but Gemma Arteton's portrayal of Vita just irritated me.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

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Audience Member

Beautiful and heartbreaking back story of Orlando.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

04/19/21

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Urijah P

Breathtakingly intectual and sorrowful. Really captures the helplessness one feels when they fall in love. And Debicki's portrayal of Virginia Woolf is awe-inspiring.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/24/19

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Chanya Button

Director

Gemma Arterton

Vita Sackville-West

Elizabeth Debicki

Virginia Woolf

Isabella Rossellini

Lady Sackville

Rupert Penry-Jones

Harold Nicolson

Peter Ferdinando

Leonard Woolf

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Vita & Virginia: Trailer 1

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Rachel Vorona Cote

Bitch Media

Much of the dialogue in Vita and Virginia is scooped directly from love letters exchanged between the writers - which, unfortunately, makes for a rather cumbersome screenplay.

Mar 15, 2021

Full Review

Ed Potton

Times (UK)

It's not as bold as that trio, but it's elevated by some adroit dialogue and knockout performances from Gemma Arterton as Vita Sackville-West, and Elizabeth Debicki as Virginia Woolf.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 6, 2020

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Martha Schabas

Globe and Mail

Maybe dramatizing their correspondence would have worked if it had been paired with convincing dialogue.

Rated: 2/4

Nov 20, 2019

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Tina Kakadelis

Beyond the Cinerama Dome

Unfortunately, the problem with this film is that the lives of the two women are too rich to be reduced to an almost-two-hour movie.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 25, 2023

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Brian T. Carney

Washington Blade

Button’s adaptation of Atkins’ wonderful script doesn’t work. She never really finds the cinematic tools to move the material from the stage to the screen.

Dec 7, 2022

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Michael Cuby

them.

The film is an engrossing look at the affair that would later inspire Woolf’s world-famous Orlando — not to mention, a worthy entry into the pantheon of queer historical biopics. Plus, Elizabeth Debicki. Need I say more?

Oct 12, 2022

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Synopsis

A love affair develops between author Vita Sackville-West and literary icon Virginia Woolf, inspiring one of Woolf's greatest works.

Director: Chanya Button
Executive Producer: Gemma Arterton, Simon Baxter, Dave Bishop, Christopher Figg, Tara Moross, Celine Haddad, Peter Hampden, Arno Hazebroek, Mika Kioussis, Norman Merry, Philip Moross, Nicolas D. Sampson, Kieron J. Walsh, Robert Whitehouse
Screenwriter: Eileen Atkins, Chanya Button
Distributor: IFC Films
Production Co: Piccadilly Pictures, Blinder Films, Lipsync Productions, Cutting Edge Entertainment, Screen Ireland
Genre: Biography, Romance, Drama, LGBTQ+
Original Language: English (United Kingdom)
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 23, 2019, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 1, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA): $32.8K
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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