Virginia Woolf's 1919 novel, Night & Day, has been brought to the screen by director Tina Gharavi, who benefits greatly from actress Haley Bennett's spirited performance as a woman who’s ahead of her time. Bennett's Katherine wants to deepen her study of math, physics, and astronomy but is hampered by constricting tradition and a grumpy father (Timothy Spall) who wants her to marry. Dad's beau of choice: an amiable sap of a suitor (Jack Whitehall) who lights no sparks with Katherine. The closest Katherine comes to romance arrives when she meets Ralph (Elyas M'Barek), an editor who's helping Katherine's mother (Jennifer Saunders) finish a 30-year project, a book she's writing about her late father, a celebrated poet. Nicely mounted and benefiting from a light touch in its opening scenes, Night & Day is burdened by obviously declared intentions about the importance of allowing capable women to find places in male-dominated institutions and, of course, to win the right to vote. After Katherine applies to Cambridge, a university that isn't likely to admit her, we wind up with a message-driven movie that feels as if it's preaching to a contemporary choir. Still, a well-chosen cast and period-piece pleasures shouldn't be discounted. Put another way: Woolf's novel isn't regarded as a masterpiece, but it receives something akin to Masterpiece Theatre treatment nonetheless.
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