Well, looks like it’s time to take another break from the Summer movie multiplex mayhem and settle in for something a tad more staid and much more somber. Like last May’s FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, this new release feels closer to an “end of the year” award and critics’ ten best contender. Like that earlier film, we’re back across the pond amongst the “veddy, veddy” British, plus it’s also based on a revered piece of literature. The time period is taken up about 50 years, so the horse-drawn carriages have given away to motorized vehicles (and lots and lots of trains). The big change is that this one doesn’t spring from the imagination of a writer, such as Mr. Hardy. Everything really happened to these very real people chronicled in an acclaimed memoir. Happily, like FAR, this new work balances rising young stars of cinema and TV alongside several familiar seasoned thespian pros in breathing dramatic life into the story of Vera Brittain’s TESTAMENT OF YOUTH.
We first meet Ms. Brittain (Alicia Vikander) dashing through the crowded celebratory streets of London at the end of the “great war” in 1918. Abruptly, the film speeds back four years, as Vera, in her late teens, leads a fairly idyllic life in an upper middle class two-story home, far from London, nestled amongst rolling green hills and meadows. She’s mortified, however, when she returns home from a lake swim with younger brother Edward (Targon Egerton), who’s home from school with classmate pal Victor (Colin Morgan), who’s not-so-secretly smitten with Vera. Father (Dominic West) and Mother (Emily Watson) have ordered a piano, so that Vera may practice her music at home while entertaining suitors. But Vera is not husband-hunting. She wishes to join Edward at Oxford (much to Mr, Brittain’s dismay). Her declarations are interrupted by the arrival of another of Edward’s schoolmates, Roland (Kit Harington). There’s an instant attraction between Vera and the budding poet. He shares his works with her, and after his departure, they begin an intense correspondence. This inspires her to take the Oxford entrance tests, which she passes. But fate conspires to keep the lovers apart as the clouds of war emanate from the east. When war is declared, Edward, Victor, and , yes, Roland heed the call. But Vera is compelled to assist and, much to the dismay of her supportive teacher Miss Lorimer (Miranda Richardson), she becomes a nurse, hoping that once the conflict ends, she and Roland can finally be together.
Vikander is a new international star who has made quite an impression with roles in A ROYAL SCANDAL, ANNA KARENINA, and, most recently, EX-MACHINA (and her work in the big, budget move remake of the TV classic THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. is just a few weeks away). She adds this new role to her resume, and ably carries the dramatic heft of this film. Her Vera is a tough, determined young woman who’s not sidetracked when in the throes of first love. More than anything, these new feelings sharpen her focus and ultimately they guide her towards her life’s work. Particularly memorable are her initial pangs of infatuation as she caresses the letters from her adored Roland. TV fan favorite (a heart-throb on HBO’s “Game of Thrones”), Harrington projects a smouldering intelligence, that is almost snuffed out by the war’s horrors. In a compelling scene set break from battle he actually seems more excited in seeing his schoolmates than his lady-love. Egerton is stalwart and sweetly supportive as brother Edward, while Morgan moons likes a lonesome puppy at the uninterested Vera. West is the often exasperated head of the house, careful not to show his true feelings, while Watson keeps him in check, until the outside world pushes her into fantasy and delusion. Richardson is superb as the academic mentor to Vera, eventually becoming a surrogate mother. Joanna Scanlan elicits a few smiles as the bewildered Aunt Belle who’s tapped into being a chaperone for Vera’s time with Roland (the lovers are always several steps ahead of her). Although she’s listed prominently in the film’s ads, the delightful Hayley Atwell (Agent Peggy Carter of the Marvel movie and TV universe) doesn’t show up until the film’s final hour as Vera’s startlingly upbeat supervisor Nurse Hope in a few scenes near the French war front (it’s closer to an extended cameo).
Prolific TV director James Kent makes his feature film debut with this often, uneven sprawling epic. It has the feel of a two-part mini-series stiched together (episode one “Vera Falls in Love on the Way to Oxford”, episode two “Vera Goes to War”). Aside from the beginning of a romance, the main characters never really spring to life, often seeming like animated “tintypes” and etchings. Instead of drawing us in, the film keeps the audience at a distance. We’ve seen these horrific medical war stories before, going all the way back to Best Picture winner ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT to countless versions of A FAREWELL TO ARMS, with elements of the TV and movie incarnations of M*A*S*H* (bloody tent operations and constant showers making miles of mud), and even the classic crane shot of the wounded from GONE WITH THE WIND tossed into the mix. Yes, war is awful, we’ve learned that from countless films. Considering the superb cast, it’s a true shame that film never surprises and instead lurches into the familiar. TESTAMENT OF YOUTH is full of lovely and sometimes heartbreaking images that never really merge into a drama that engages both the mind and heart.
3 Out of 5 Stars
