Fans of period drama are up for a treat with this film adaptation of the first volume in Vera Brittain’s acclaimed memoirs, a moving depiction of the ravages World War I inflicted upon her generation.
Brittain was the rebellious daughter of a wealthy family and early in her teens was keen to defy society’s conventions. She refused her family’s attempts to get her married and aimed at a higher education to become a writer instead. Testament of Youth begins in that moment, during a carefree summer spent together by Vera, her brother Edward and two of his mates, Roland and Victor, imbued by the youngters’ eager anticipation for the next step in their lives, when everlasting bonds were forged and Romance looms.
As the threat of war increases, Vera is admitted at Oxford University, while her brother and his friends follow their patriotic idealism and enlist for the army. What they believed it would be an instant victory, becomes a much more extended and painful conflict forcing Vera to leave her studies and volunteer as a Nurse helping the combat’s victims at home and abroad. Tragedy, loss and despair will follow.
Alicia Vikander shines and steals the show. The Swedish rising star, soon to become a fixture in our screens with no less than eight movies coming up to a theatre near you, gives a superb central performance helped by an excellent cast of both promising young actors (Kit Harington; Colin Morgan; Taron Egerton) and veteran ones (Dominic West; Emily Watson; Miranda Richardson).
Perhaps because this is James Kent’ first feature film after a long career directing TV movies, Testament Of Youth possesses an old-fashioned quality rare in contemporary movies. Despite dealing with an overtly emotional subject, it never descends into sappy sentimentality and even if it tells an overfamiliar story and its narrative is often too gentle to fully show the harshness of the situation it describes, it’s still a well-rounded and thoroughly enjoyable work that should please a wide audience. ★★★
