Clarissa Lets Sophie Okonedo Have Her Day

As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing Sophie Okonedo can’t do. The onetime Tony winner and bajillion-time Oscar-, Emmy-, and Olivier-nominated actor is among the most skilled performers of her generation, the kind whose appearance in a TV show or movie makes your whole body relax in real time. She can be funny, she can be menacing, and she can be raw and almost unbelievably real, which is why the first trailer for Clarissa feels so vivid right from the jump. Okonedo plays the title character in Arie and Chuko Esiri’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s beloved classic Mrs. Dalloway. As in the novel, Clarissa weaves two seemingly disparate narratives — one about a wealthy woman, the other about a soldier with PTSD — into one story about fate, existentialism, and time.

With a supporting cast that includes David Oyelowo, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ayo Edibiri, and Fortune Nwafor in a debut performance as the soldier with whom Clarissa’s fate is intertwined, Clarissa looks immediately classical in the best possible way, filled with the lush blues and greens of the best Merchant Ivory films. Love, loss, regret, acceptance — it is hard to say whether Clarissa can handle these things as she’s confronted with her past on the fateful day when the events unfold, but Okonedo can do it all. Clarissa, a Neon release, will be out in theaters on December 11.