Testament of Youth is a quality wartime drama
REVIEW: The moving British drama Testament of Youth is adapted from one of the few memoirs that looked at World War One from a woman’s perspective.
Leigh Paatsch
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Testament of Youth (M)
Director: James Kent (feature debut)
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington, Colin Morgan, Taron Egerton, Emily Watson, Dominic West.
Rating : ***
’Tis a pity she’s at war
THIS genuinely moving British drama is adapted from the 1933 memoirs of Vera Brittain, who penned one of the few books that addressed World War I from a purely female perspective.
An impressive performance from Alicia Vikander as Vera saves Testament of Youth from becoming the traditional heart-tugger that its poster and trailer are conspicuously suggesting.
The film opens in 1913, with a young and idealistic Vera petitioning her parents to allow her to begin undergraduate studies in literature at Oxford. However, no sooner has she finally worn them down, and hostilities in Europe are underway.
In a matter of months, the call to war has been answered by all of the young men who matter to Vera.
Her fiance Roland (Game of Thrones star Kit Harington) is the first to leave, followed by his best friend Victor (Colin Morgan) and her cherished younger brother Edward (Taron Egerton in a markedly different guise to his breakout role in Kingsman: The Secret Service).
The absence of this trio and the radically changing social climate in England eats away at Vera and her literary ambitions until there is only one course of action she can possibly take.
Vera puts down her books and volunteers as a military nurse, a fateful decision which will ultimately place her on the front lines of battle in France.
Vera’s broken bond with Roland — and her valiant attempt to repair it by putting her own life in danger — charges Testament of Youth with an emotional power that transcends that of a mere love story.
Director James Kent very skilfully syncs Vera’s painfully personal journey with the hellish new pages in the history books being written all around her.
While the end result will feel quite familiar to most viewers, it is both the steely intent and acute sensitivity Vikander isolates in her role that leaves a fresh mark in the memory.
Testament of Youthis now showing in limited release at arthose cinemas around Australia.
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Originally published as Testament of Youth is a quality wartime drama
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