Testament of Youth

This review may contain spoilers!

The rather bland and stale war story that really just feels like a philosophy essay. I would give Testament of Youth a 5.5/10.

This film had some beautiful camera work, the attention to detail and perspective of it's characters was portrayed brilliantly. There was also some incredible exploration upon the effects of war on the youth of Britain within World War One.

Joanna Scanlan, who played Aunt Belle, was a really humourous character; her role in the film was both entertaining and an example of very carefully acted comedy. Emily Watson and Dominic West, Who played Mrs and Mr Brittain respectively, were really great in their stern parental roles; but it was the moments where we see Mrs Brittain losing herself after the impacts of war or seeing Mr Brittain break down after his son leaves for war that really shone through. Alicia Vikander, who played Vera Brittain, was a wonderful lead in this feature; she spearheaded and lead the drama in a really engaging way. Taron Egerton, who played Edward Brittain, was quite a strong performance even if he did play it a bit camp at times; his good humoured portrayal and chemistry with Vikander meant he was fantastic to watch onscreen.

However it was Hayley Atwell, who played Hope, that really stood out in this film. Atwell was in one scene but it was a scene where I was shown a caliber of acting that was on a higher level than the rest of the cast. Atwell had some fantastic energy, stealing the scene and the film. She was funny, but you could see that she had constructed a character who's comedy stemmed as a mask against the horrors of war.

This film as a whole is best described as dry and slow, you get bored quite quickly. The film attempts to create a real state of consciousness with it's plot but fails to do so because of the pacing and the mundane plot. The editing within this film didn't help the pacing much; everything was gradual and took far too long to move. The score also fell flat and wasn't very memorable.

Colin Morgan, who played Victor Richardson, was really quite an awkward character to watch; he lacked substance and presence. Julie Vollono, who played Mrs Ellinger, was a very stiff performance; it felt like she was just going through the motions of her character. Jonathan Bailey, who played George Thurlow, had next to no presence; he was talked about like he was important but was stripped of any meaningful screen time. Kit Harington, who played Roland Leighton, was a confusing character; his motivations and personality were constantly in flux even before the way and I really didn't see much appeal to his performance at all.