Movie review: ‘Testament of Youth’ keeps you at arm’s length

What It’s About

War is hell. Love hurts. These self-evident truths are the basic tenets of “Testament of Youth,” a faithful but oftentimes lifeless film adaptation of writer and pacifist Vera Brittain’s 1933 highly-regarded memoir about World War I.

In 1914, Brittain’s brother, his friend and her beau sign up to fight for England. Vera (Alicia Vikander), a strong-willed independent thinker who wants nothing more than to study at Oxford, throws her college plans aside to be a nurse tending to the wounded.

The horrors of war are captured by showing the aftermath of the battlefield. Director James Kent doesn’t show action, instead concentrating on the devastating physical and emotional toll. The loss of innocence is emphasized in our main characters, a strong lineup of young rising stars, as well as the older adults, who are venerable screen veterans.

Vera, increasingly distraught by what she sees, is forever changed. The movie opens on Armistice Day in 1918, and then flashes back to four years’ earlier, when she was a young lady eschewing the path of marriage and motherhood for learning instead so that she could become a writer. Her journey became the basis for her bestseller.

Performances

Vikander, the up-and-coming Swedish actress who broke out in “A Royal Affair” and was noticed more in this year’s “Ex Machina,” is a beauty that the camera loves. She is convincing as a headstrong feminist ahead of her time, but we don’t see her as an emerging voice of her generation, because the film ends before that. The director lingers on shots of her enduring tragedies and triumphs, and she is a captivating screen presence.

Kit Harington (“Game of Thrones”), as her suitor Roland, conveys his frustrations and fears well, and their love story feels authentic. The genial Taron Egerton (“Kingsman: The Secret Service”) is a great match for her tenacity as her kind and gentle brother Edward.

Oscar nominees Emily Watson (“Breaking the Waves”) and Miranda Richardson (“Tom & Viv”) are sadly wasted in minor roles as Vera’s mother and Oxford headmistress respectively. Dominic West (“The Wire”) is touching as a father worried for his children at this historic time of strife.

What Works

The film is shot beautifully, and exquisite vistas of the English countryside are shown. Ripping off the iconic crane shot of the Confederate casualties from “Gone with the Wind,” however, is a poor choice, even if it is a smaller scale.

What Doesn’t Work

Obviously, it’s an interesting story to tell, but it keeps us at arm’s length, never quite emotionally involving us. I had high expectations, which is a disadvantage anyway, but it never drew me in entirely, even though I tried to like it more.

“Atonement,” Joe Wright’s neglected classic in 2009, was so much stronger in reeling us into the anguish and the heartbreak during the same time period, and I wanted to be invested like that. Perhaps the comparison is unfair, but there are a few classic World War I stories involving love and torment, and “A Farewell to Arms” comes to mind as well.

The pacing is sluggish, and the English manners of the day create a wall between real connection. When we experience the quieter, revealing, emotional moments, the film reminds us it could have gone from good to great with a few adjustments.

This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 10:43 AM with the headline "Movie review: ‘Testament of Youth’ keeps you at arm’s length."