A haunting biopic about a haunted man, BENEDICTION is a masterful, visually dynamic film about a complex man famous for his writing about the horror of war. Decorated for bravery and beloved by the soldiers serving with him, Siegfried Sassoon was a WWI British officer who returned from that brutal conflict to vocally oppose the war, and became one of Britain’s acclaimed war poets.
BENEDICTION is a brilliant feast of a film, written and directed by British auteur Terence Davies. Sassoon was among the renowned war poets who came out of WWI, a devastating conflict whose brutality virtually wiped out a generation, toppled monarchies, and prompted the Geneva Convention’s rules on warfare. Sassoon’s pointed yet lyrical war poetry struck a chord with a nation where everyone was impacted by it, either surviving the battlefield or experiencing the loss of family and friends. This excellent and beautiful film takes us inside the life of a complicated, troubled but beloved artist who grappled not only with his war trauma but his homosexuality in an era when it was not only socially frowned on but illegal and dangerous.
This is not the first biopic about a literary figure for Terence Davies, who also directed the the 2016 A QUIET PASSION, about Emily Dickinson, played excellently by Cynthia Nixon. Like that film, BENDICTION is led by a stellar performance, by Scottish actor Jack Lowden in a deeply moving performance as Sassoon.
An officer decorated for his bravery and beloved by his soldiers and fellow officers alike, Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden) was sent to an English hospital to recuperate from “trench fever” but once home, decided to refuse to return to the battlefield, penning an open letter accusing military leaders of prolonging a war they could easily end. His act of defiance and protest could have led to court-martial, but wealthy and well-connected friends, particularly his patron Robbie Ross (Simon Russell Beale), intervened and Sassoon, who was already gaining fame for his writing, was declared to be suffering from “shell shock” and sent instead to a military hospital in Scotland.
In Scotland, Sassoon witnessed the suffering of soldiers wounded or maimed by war, met fellow war poet Wilfred Owen (Matthew Tennyson), and was treated by a sympathetic psychotherapist, Dr. Rivers (Ben Daniels ) who helped Sassoon acknowledge his homosexuality. After the war, Sassoon went on to become a lauded star of aristocratic literary circles and London’s glittering theatrical world. Surrounded by famous figures, Sassoon remained haunted by the war and unsettled by his sexuality, ultimately seeking refuge in marriage and religion without finding peace in either.
BENEDICTION gives us the basics of Sassoon’s dramatic, even glamorous at times, life as it moves back and forth in time, from the young soldier in 1914 to the older angry man (played by Peter Capaldi) in the ’60s. Although the film jumps back and forth in time, the flashbacks to Jack Lowden’s younger Sassoon, which makes up the bulk of the film’s 137 minutes running time, is presented in chronological order, so there is no trouble following the narrative.
But this excellent biography not only captures the arc and details of Sassoon’s life, it does what too few movies about artists do: offers a sampling of his art. What’s more, Terence Davies does this in a visually-striking and emotionally moving way. Throughout the film. we hear a number of Sassoon’s poems read in voice-over, usually backed by perfectly selected music, accompanied by almost surreal visual sequences, where the ordinary period scene in which we see the author, slowly is supplanted by archival black and white images of WWI. The effect is both powerful emotionally and beautiful, as well as a perfect visual representation of how memories of the war continually intrude on the poet’s thoughts.
BENEDICTION opens with the elderly Sassoon (Peter Capaldi), arguing with his grown son George (Richard Goulding) as the father becomes set on the puzzling path of converting to Catholicism. But then it flashes back to the young Siegfried (Jack Lowden) and his brother Hamo (Thom Ashley), who would not return from the war, entering a stately concert hall for a performance of Diaghilev’s ballet set to Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” while Sassoon’s poem “Concert – Interpretation” is heard in voice-over. The poem commenting satirically and ironically on the audience’s reaction to the Stravinsky’s ground-breaking piece, then shifts to focus on the preparations for war, as we see the curtain rise, revealing not dancers but black-and-white images of smiling young men preparing to go off to WWI.
Think of how many cultural references of the time period are crammed into that scene. Yet, everything flows smoothly and organically, blending into a visually appealing and evocative scene as natural as a landscape painting. Terence Davies pulls off this magical trick time and again in this film, using poetry, music and imagery to harken back to the war, just as Sassoon’s war memories intrude repeatedly on his thoughts. The cinematography by Nicola Daley is beautiful, stunning and unforgettable.
We get several of Sassoon’s poems in the course of the film. The well-written biopic also contains masterful dialog, often acerbic or lacerating, as well as insightful discussions that reveal character. The aristocratic, handsome Sassoon socialized with or was visited by a litany to famous figures of the era, including Winston Churchill (unseen but talked about), T. E. Lawrence (Edward Bennett) and Robert Graves (Jonathan Broadbent). An affair with writer/performer Ivor Novello (played with chilling charm by Jeremy Irvine), one of the most famous stars of the time, led to heartbreak for the poet. Sassoon’s discomfort living his life in the “shadow world” of gay life left him feeling out of place in the world, and led him to marry Hester Gatty (an appealingly warm Kate Phillips). It was common then for gay men to marry for the sake of appearance, but Sassoon seemed to have expected a deeper life change, which he did not find with either marriage or fatherhood.
Jack Lowden gives a powerful, multilayered performance as this complicated, conflicted man. Lowden portrays the handsome, aristocratic Sassoon as a quietly charming man whose mild, polite public persona makes him seem a conventional figure but whose poetry reveals a deeper layer with its pointed anger and intelligence suffusing biting social commentary. In one scene, Lowden’s harmless-seeming poet is invited to recite one of his pieces for a salon of upper-crust dignitaries. He delivers a bomb of a poem, coolly reciting it as if it is the mildest of doggerel. In the film’s emotionally searing final scene, Lowden’s Sassoon sits on a park bench, his composed handsome face slowly crumbling into devastation, while we hear voice-over reciting a heart-breaking poem by Wilfred Owen and see imagines of a veteran in a wheelchair, an indescribably powerful and haunting sequence.
Lowden’s outstanding performance is supported by a strong cast. Peter Capaldi is excellent as the older, embittered Sassoon, gruffly brushing aside his wife Hester (Gemma Jones) and son George (Richard Goulding), and rebuffing an old friend Stephen Tennant (Anton Lesser). As the younger versions of those characters, Kate Phillips as Hester and Calam Lynch as Tennant, also give us strong work. Geraldine James plays well Sassoon’s beloved mother, a nervous, worried, loving woman, traumatized by the loss of one son and puzzled by her other one. A couple of other standouts are Simon Russell Beale as Sassoon’s loyal defender and friend Robbie Ross, whom Sassoon defends in turn in the film, as someone who also stood by Oscar Wilde “at great risk to himself,” before Wilde was jailed for being gay.
BENEDICTION is an excellent film that both entertains and informs, an outstanding biopic that movingly takes us inside this artist’s life and the time period that shaped him, all wrapped in a creative, visually stunning piece of cinema filled with affecting performances.
BENEDICTION opens Friday, June 3, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema, the Chase Park Plaza Cinema, and other theaters.
RATING: 4 out of 4 stars
