Adapted from a novel by Virginia Woolf, this is a classic example of the triumph of style over substance. The plot concerning a young English aristocrat initially set in Elizabethan times charts how the character longs for love and companionship falls for a Russian girl who toys with his feelings and ultimately breaks his heart. Queen Elizabeth offers him a house and land if he can remain young and not wither away. Miraculously Orlando does not age at all and remains young (However the reason for this is not explained). He is given an then ambassador post in the East, forms a friendship with the ruler and gives them weapons to fight of a mutual enemy. He returns to England and falls into a long sleep and awakes as a female (yes really)and whilst out horse riding falls off her horse and amazingly along comes Billy Zane and the same thing happens to him they immediately feel something towards each other and return to Orlando's house and make love. He is a free spirit and ultimately returns to America. Then we quickly are rushed through the World Wars to the present day London where she has passed her writings to a publisher in the Docklands and we see her and her child riding off back to the House she owned for centuries. <br /><br />I have probably left a few things out. But then I felt there was a lot of emotional depth missing from this film. I did not for once find Tilda Swinton believable as a man in the beginning of the film. Even when Orlando changes sex I did not find her acting to be of the required emotional depth, although the script was probably partly to blame for this. I found some of the dialogue to be quite trite in places. And even though the story of Orlando could have been interesting this 90 minute film seemed like it was well over 2hrs. As another reviewer has stated, the character passes through these times but there is no real connection, you do not find out a great deal about the periods and what life was like as the film concentrates more on Orlando's emotional quest. Also I am not really a fan of movies where the protagonist often makes asides to the camera, in most cases it is not essential to the plot and adds nothing to the film.<br /><br />I would give this film 3.5 out of 10. It is not worth the time, unless you are a fan of Virginia Woolf's writing or interested in feminist movies, but even then there has been better. <br /><br />If you want to see a much better Tilda Swinton film I highly recommend you check out a 2001 movie called "The Deep End" she co-stars with Goran Visnjic.