Susan Granger’s review of “Testament of Youth” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Vera Brittain’s best-selling memoir, published in 1933, recalls her experiences in England during the First World War, revealing that conflict’s impact not only on her family but also on the culture of her country.
So it’s fitting that her story begins on Armistice Day, 1918, when she returns home to proper Edwardian society before revealing her story in flashback.
In 1914, just before the outbreak of the war, rebellious teenage Vera (Alicia Vikander) wants to attend Oxford, but her parents (Dominic West, Emily Watson) in Derbyshire fear that getting an advanced education will deter her chances of acquiring a suitably wealthy husband, which was – at that time – a young woman’s primary goal in life.
Fortunately, Vera’s aspirations were supported by her beloved younger brother Edward (Taron Egerton) and his mates, particularly idealistic Roland (Kit Harington), whose mother was a suffragette. Sharing a passion for poetry and writing, Vera and Roland, not surprisingly, fall in love.
But the primary drama revolves around Vera’s patriotic decision to leave Oxford to volunteer as a military nurse’s assistant, eventually chronicling the harrowing, heartbreaking devastation caused by man’s inhumanity to man, as evidenced in field hospitals near the front-line.
Vivacious Swedish actress Alicia Vikander is the sentient android in “Ex Machina,” while viewers of TV’s “Game of Thrones” know Kit Harington as ill-fated Jon Snow. Plus, there are strong supporting turns from Miranda Richardson as Vera’s Oxford adviser and Hayley Atwell as a nursing colleague who resents caring for German prisoners-of-war.
Adapted by Juliette Towhidi (“Calendar Girls”) and directed by James Kent, it’s overly long and, at times, a bit tedious in its feminist frustration. Not quite on a par with “The Big Parade,” “Paths of Glory” and “All’s Quiet on the Western Front,” it covers much of the same emotional territory – but from a woman’s point-of-view. Brittain’s book was previously filmed as a BBC-TV series in 1979.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Testament of Youth” is an admirable, anti-war 8 – concluding with a powerfully persuasive pacifist plea.
