Testament of Youth

Hot on the heels of war time true story dramas such as Imitation Game and Unbroken comes Testament of Youth, a film based on the 1933 classic memoir of Vera Brittain- An almost definitive account of loss and love amongst the lost generation of world war one. Bringing this epic memoir to the screen would be no easy task. The book runs to over six hundred pages. Does it succeed?

Testament of Youth The story is of Vera Brittain, played by Alicia Vikander, who shaped through her war time experiences Intelligent and free-spirited Vera overcomes the narrow-mindedness of her conservative parents, winning a scholarship to Oxford. Entranced by her brother’s dashing friend Roland, who shares her literary aspirations, she plunges into an intoxicating romance. Blooming, in love and on the cusp of fulfilling her ambitions, Vera’s dreams are brutally shattered by the onset of war. When Roland and her brother ship out to the front, she abandons the cloistered environs of university life and volunteers as a nurse. Immediately confronted with the pitiless reality of the war’s victims, her life is irrevocably changed as she loses, one-by-one, the young men she held so dear.

Testament of Youth is a subject well worthy of film and this version will earn plaudits from many corners. However, whilst the acting and James Kents directing is very good, overall this is a film that fails to grip you as much as you think it would, could or should. It also feels that the real story lies not so much about the war but the impact this had on the people afterwards. After her war time experiences Vera found it difficult living in a post war generation and she went on to become a campaigning pacifist. The story only gives us a glimpse of this which is a shame.