Alicia Vikander’s “The Last Day” turns July 4

In Rachel Rose’s debut, Alicia Vikander and Victoria Pedretti steer a Fourth of July day through grief, fear, flashbacks, and a “Mrs. Dalloway” framework—setting the tone with unsettling sirens and ending with a piercing sense of what modern womanhood can’t qu

In Mount Kisco. New York. the town’s volunteer fire brigade is still called by air sirens—piercing. unpredictable. and wailing through summer days. The sound has a way of messing with your nerves. and in Rachel Rose’s feature directorial debut. “The Last Day. ” those sirens become more than atmosphere. They’re one of the many sharp jolts that keeps the characters—and the audience—off balance.

There’s a dead doe, an anxious fawn, frequent fireworks, and plenty of flashbacks. There’s even at least one ill-advised ketamine trip. Showy elements like those might seem like they’d take over. They don’t. The film’s real force comes from the graceful performances at its center—Alicia Vikander and Victoria Pedretti—and from the steady anxiety they stir up. whether it shows up as a held breath or an unraveling that never quite stops.

Billed as a modern interpretation of Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway,” Rose offers a screenplay that keeps its grip without turning fussy. The novel’s big hallmarks are there: a disaffected housewife. an unstable stranger. a single day given over to errands. and blasts from the past. But Rose doesn’t feel tethered to one-to-one adaptation. She takes what she needs, ignores the rest, and spins the material into something that lands with unsettling intelligence.

At the core is Vikander’s Julia—“Mrs. Dalloway” fans may spot the parallel to Clarissa—a suburban housewife trying to get through a very busy Fourth of July. Her day is loaded before it even becomes dangerous: she has a traveling husband. a growing daughter. and a huge house outside of New York City. She’s throwing a big holiday party that night. but before that. the former novelist has to head into the city to work through a lengthy to-do list.

Cinematographer Eric Yue keeps close on Julia with a handheld camera that stays caught in their movements. queasy and intimate at the same time. Julia’s day is already fraught—she’s also dealing with deep grief over her recently deceased father. Then the list grows more complicated. She has to handle last-minute Botox. She has a run-in with the perhaps great love of her life, Wagner Moura. There’s an entirely horrific professional meeting. And she visits her dad’s old loft.

A stop for group therapy follows, along with flashbacks that clarify her past life. All of it keeps circling one tightening question as Julia tries to balance everyday concerns with deep-seated fears about who she is as a woman, an artist, a wife, a mother, and a person.

Running alongside Julia’s day is another mother. Taylor (Pedretti). dealing with similar problems in the simple. brutal way of trying to get through the day while unable to shake profound fears about her own existence. Rose introduces Taylor in a local bakery where she’s fumbling to pay for cookies—so out of it that it doesn’t even occur to her to wonder where her wallet is.

Julia and Taylor don’t truly cross paths at first. Julia is only added to Taylor’s orbit after Julia finds Taylor’s wallet in the parking lot. turning it into another task for her list. What Julia doesn’t know—what the film keeps insisting on. quietly and then not so quietly—is what’s really happening with the young mother. Taylor punches an address to a psychiatric hospital into her GPS before zooming out of the parking lot in the other direction. The GPS continues to advise Julia to make a U-turn. She will not.

When Julia looks Taylor up on the internet. the picture it paints is all healthy. smiling photos—completely at odds with what viewers have already seen. Later. when Taylor finally meets Julia in person. it’s clear Taylor is admiring this woman who seems to have it all together. The heartbreak is that neither woman can see how closely they’re linked, how intertwined their worries are.

As Taylor heads home to her concerned husband and three young kids, the day doesn’t soften. In a nerve-jangling visit later in the day, her pediatrician concedes to her that three is a lot. Flashbacks pull the camera further into Taylor’s earlier life: she used to be a delivery nurse of all things. In those sequences. Pedretti’s joy and vibrance only make the rest of her performance feel more heartbreaking. because the film won’t let you pretend she’s simply sad in one moment—it suggests she’s been unraveling for a long time. Julia may still be trying to reconcile who she wants to be with who she is. but Taylor has long ago lost any sense of her self.

As Rose moves the pair through the same Fourth of July framework, “The Last Day” keeps using the “Mrs. Dalloway” structure to press on modern womanhood—especially the gaps between women and the idea that motherhood is the thing that consumes everything. How can Julia and Taylor exist beyond motherhood?. Why is it so hard to connect with other women?. What does the future look like?. What does the past?. And why can’t they be happy with what they have?.

Vikander approaches the material with a steady presence. Much of her performance registers across her face. and in a scene where she grapples with professional disappointment and resentment. the film gives you the strain of holding it together. Pedretti leans into a turn so open it almost feels too intimate to observe. The reviewer can’t recall a recent film in which they so desperately wanted to reach in and hug a character. But they can’t—because what the film offers isn’t an escape. It’s a sense of need and pain and fear that can only be watched. heard. and felt from a distance.

The film closes with that same ache: recognizing the need and the pain and the fear of the women populating it, but understanding you can’t touch it, can’t change it. You can only observe it—sirens and flashbacks and errands and all.

“The Last Day” premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.

The Last Day Alicia Vikander Victoria Pedretti Mrs. Dalloway Rachel Rose Fourth of July Tribeca Festival film review modern interpretation