Woolf's novel, Orlando is witty, clever, funny and has a remarkable evenness of tone and writing skill - certainly for her. It is a work of an artist in possession of their craft.<br /><br />This film version of that book has none of those qualities and while it is excellently designed and shot on a modest budget it lacks intelligence, wit and purpose: it is a pop music video. It is all surface and eye candy an Winton's performance incarnates that gloss. While she has a fine face, she is overtly wooden.<br /><br />But worse than that it has a smug and ever so cool media studies artiness as it breaks the frame to address the viewer. The film version is like a tier 3 university course called Feminist Poetics and Male Narratives...the mediocrity of its cinema realization is much to clear.