Ten minutes after the start of the film, I once doubted whether I could understand the film. The alternate appearance of three women, the constantly cutting and changing scenes, and the ambiguous brief introductions read before this seem to indicate that this will not be one or three simple stories. However, when I saw half of the movie, I started to cry. And until the end of the movie. On the Internet, I saw many people say that this is a movie about women. Some people say it’s gay or simply don’t understand it, so I want to write down what I see. It can be regarded as an interpretation. An interpretation about women and completely irrelevant to women.
This is actually not a complicated movie, it's just because the three intertwined stories seem too plain. Three women's day. A very ordinary day seems to be linked by a book "Mrs Dalloway." Because they are so different, the connection seems reluctant, Virginia Woolf—a genius, a woman on the verge of collapse. Laura Brown-a housewife, a woman changed by genius. And Clarissa-an editor, a woman waiting for geniuses. They live in different times and have different families, but one thing is indeed the same. I always think this is what really connects them. That is the dream that they are still alive in their hearts, and the vulgar life they face.
This vulgar life is also something that many of us have to face. It is like a cage, trapping our dreams and suffocating us without escape. For Virginia Woolf, this cage is a peaceful life in Richmond. In order to prevent her from having another mental illness, her husband Leonard brought her to this small town, bought her a printing press, and opened a publishing house for her. However, all these efforts could not allow her to lead the "normal" life he expected. Because she is Virginia Woolf, it is destined that she will eventually live to find the true meaning of life. She will never become a woman who is content with a certain man who enjoys the smell of sunshine and grass. Although this road is full of thorns and dangerous, it can even drive people crazy. But this is something she cannot give up. She envied her sister's enjoyment of worldly happiness. When bidding farewell, she kissed her sister fiercely and asked, "Do you think I can escape one day?" This escape may refer to madness or her destiny. However, she couldn't escape after all. Or when the day is over. She finally made a choice.
Returning to London, returning to the turbulent life may mean another episode of psychosis, which may mean death. However, she said, if I were to choose between death and Richmond, I would choose death.
Leonard looked at the firmness in her eyes and cried. Because he finally knows that there are some people in this world, even though you love them so much, even though you are willing to give them everything you have, but you will not be destined to keep them.
Such a person will have a huge sense of loneliness and emptiness. This is a person's nature, and maybe everyone has something in them. It's just that some people don't want to face it, and choose to hide in secular emotions and life to paralyze themselves. This is the time the housewife Laura lived before reading the "Mrs. Dalloway." Although the film did not describe what she was like between this day. But we have reason to believe that she was probably satisfied with having a small family of her own, like all housewives.
Her husband is a good man. Her son is also very cute, from a well-off family, and has a good life. But what does this mean to her? Before reading this book, she may have always avoided such problems. Use the trivialities of worldly life to numb your sensitive soul. However, on this day, she finally understood that her love for them could not allow her to stay, and she did not belong to this kind of life. Although she has always worked hard to be a good wife and mother, it is not part of her nature. She felt so painful because of this, and even hoped to be relieved by death.
This is an incomprehensible thing in the eyes of some people. Why do some people who have cars, houses, husbands and sons, are still not satisfied after all this. Isn't life just like this? Isn't life just like this? Who doesn't live like this?
Leonard said to Virginia, we have an obligation to eat the cooked food, and you have an obligation to stay awake.
And Virgenia said, "Only I, I, know what I want best. This is my choice, as a person's choice." There
has never been an unprovoked death, only an incomprehensible death. Sometimes when you see the essence of life clearly, that great nihility will secretly approach with the shadow of death. Some people actually understand this in their hearts, so they choose not to look at it, they choose to avoid it. On this day, Laura did not end her life in the end, but she made a decision and chose another way to quit her life, a way that was completely incomprehensible. She abandoned her husband and children. This lies in the worldly concept, this is the most blameworthy thing a mother can do. However, like Virginia, she also faced her own nature bravely. She also bravely faced the condemnation that her conscience must bear in the years to come.
Whether it is selfish or irresponsible. Sometimes we have to admit that she lives more like a person. "No one will forgive me. Except death." She said when she had to meet Clarissa, played by Streep, at the end of the film. "But I choose to survive."
I saw the subtle change in Streep's face. I was actually moved by what Laura said. Before this day, Clarissa was the opposite of our first two heroines. She was Leonard next to Virginia Woolf, and she was the husband and son next to Laura. She is the cage of others and her own. She took care of her ex-boyfriend, Richard, not so much because of love, as because she was a mediocre parasite. And her parasite is not something else. It is my dream. Because Richard is a talented person. So she told her daughter that only when she was with Richa did she feel that she was truly alive. So she was also angry at Li checking her gaze. Because his eyes made her clearly realize that she was indeed a mediocre person, living a mediocre life. This even made her cry hysterically when Richard's ex-boyfriend arrived.
But Richard knew everything, he lived to repay her. So he asked her "Mrs. Dalloway", "Will you be angry if I die."
Of course she was angry. She felt that they should live for each other. She referred to this as being dependent on each other. Some people rely on being a cage with others to prove their existence. Although she was also angry at her vulgar life, she was quite submissive.
However, Richard said, "Mrs. Dalloway. You must let me go, and you must also let yourself." Finally, he jumped down from the window in front of her, and finally did what he wanted to do and got relief. Maybe this world has made him impatient for a long time. However, sometimes even if you choose to die, you will be so unfree. He lived for her for ten years.
"Why must someone die?" Leonard asked Virginia
"For comparison," Virginia said "To make the living people know how to cherish life."
"Then who will die?" Leonard asked again.
"Poet" Virginia said "those who have dreams."
But Clarissa didn't understand, she was so angry that she was beyond words, she just wanted to hold a party for him. She did all the trivial and tiresome things but felt unhappy and not understood. Until the appearance of Laura Brown.
We will be surprised to find that Richard turned out to be Laura's son, the melancholy little boy who appeared in Laura's day. Richard could never forgive her mother for abandoning them. So he arranged a death ending for her in her novel. However, at his last moment, when he himself finally decided to leave his cage. The picture of her on his knee seemed to imply that he could finally understand her.
"If I say I regret, then I will relax and be better." Laura said to Clarissa, "but what's the point of regret? When you have no choice."
Laura's appearance finally made Clarissa Understand Richard's choice. Sometimes it takes courage to face a true self. As Virginia said, "Escape from life does not return inner peace." Richard and Laura are actually the same people as Virginia. Clarissa is completely different from them. So Laura thinks Clarissa is a lucky woman, because she is born with a soul that can integrate with this world. She can enjoy some of the things the world has brought to them. Her maternal love is a kind of nature, it is a kind of happiness. Although she is always unaware of it.
At the end of the day, Clarissa finally walked out of her cage. Begin to become calm. Sometimes you have to know how to let go. There are people you are destined to be unable to keep. Death is just a way to leave. If this is their choice, you can only face it. No one has the right to criticize or guide the lives of others. What we need to face is our own life, our true inner self, no matter how painful the process of cognition is, even if it is a dead end, no matter what kind of person we find ourselves. We cannot escape.
"Dear Leonard, face life, always face life only, understand its true meaning, always understand, love its essence, and then give up it."
-Virginia Woolf
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