War at its dreariest

Alicia Vikander stars as Vera Brittain in "Testament of Youth." Photo courtesy Sony Pictures Classics

Bombs light up the otherwise darkened French sky as unseen German troops march closer and closer to British nurse Vera Brittain's (Alicia Vikander) modest encampment. She's tending to dead and dying enemy troops amid the destruction of World War I, moving around the small bunker as booms erupt and the staff worry about what the enemy will do if the raid's successful.

The time it took to read that sentence is a pretty even match for how long “Testament of Youth” lingers around what should have been its most intense and engrossing moment. The scene instead shifts to the morning after, and the drama built up in those moments of war melts into a puddle of disappointment. Somehow, and for some unfathomable reason, a film about the horrors of World War I shoves the action aside and pushes interminable scenes of weeping in its stead, creating an impeccably dull and slight two-plus hour viewing experience.

Some of the absence of war issue traces back to the film's focus on Vikander's Brittain, who was a real person and wrote a memoir about her experiences during wartime. Her perspective resides behind the line, watching her brother Ted (Taron Egerton), beau Roland (Kit Harington) and comfortable acquaintance Victor (Colin Morgan) endure the terrors wrought by trench warfare. There are very few moments of them actually serving either, but viewers do receive ample opportunity to watch them gallivant about at the Brittain household (headed by reliable character actors Dominic West and Emily Watson) during better days and for temporary war reprieves. Vikander also spends a bit of time at Oxford before and after the war, allowing viewers to spend a few lovely moments with Miranda Richardson as an interesting and rather underwritten teacher. She's kind of a package deal with Vikander's goofy aunt (Joanna Scanlan), who offers something resembling comedic relief.

Kind of like this stock photo image of a British woman, but less animated.

“Testament of Youth” isn't a bad film – the aesthetics are sometimes striking and the acting is passable at worst – but it doesn't meet the standards of an interesting film either. The film is an unequivocal bore, a trite depiction of what was a terrifying and brutal war and reduces it to a romantic tear-gasm that spends precious few seconds chronicling the war’s fear and havoc. The scene depicted in the opening paragraph is as close as the film gets to earning that feeling, but it's edited to death and almost elided over completely to shift viewers back to safer, less interesting territory.

This complaint isn't a request for more scenes of war and battle, as limiting the carnage visible on screen is a good strategy given the focus of the film is on Vikander. At least, that's how it should be; instead of really delving into what she had to cope with on a quotidian basis while tending to German troops, “Testament of Youth” is centered on her relationship with the three central male figures in her life. Her emotions are based entirely on them, her thoughts and feelings motivated by their well-being and on their worries and concerns. What's the point of telling the story from her perspective if that view is shifted away from her so frequently?

It's frustrating to watch Vikander mope about when the filmmakers continue to hint at a more involving wartime experience for her. The horror of war isn't limited to the people serving on the front lines, and it's clear Vikander's Brittain experienced more than her fair share of tragedy while surrounded by the sick and dying. “Testament of Youth” even teases a bit of the moral quandary she underwent tending to the enemy during wartime. Alas, it remains little more than a tease, a fleeting moment of philosophy amid a rambling, disjointed period piece told the same way a as a 5-year-old describes a trip to the farm; this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened, and then everyone died.

And then the Grim Reaper took a break for tea.

Fortunately, “Testament of Youth” does come to an end, which arrives after a few more dry scenes that would serve as more natural conclusion. A postscript ensues, as it does with these types of films, the credits roll onward and the lights pop on inviting viewers to leave and ultimately forget about this disappointingly unremarkable film.

Review: Two out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer. 

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 129 minutes

Genre: Drama

Ask Away

Target audience: I gather Anglophiles and World War I hobbyists.

Take the whole family?: Content wise the PG-13 is a tad strong, but interest wise there's no way in hell anyone younger than that would want to watch this.

Theater or Netflix?: Or, you know, neither.

Does 'Testament of Youth' succeed at all?:  It at least doesn't glorify the war experience, an important factor for a film written by a pacifist. The argument against making war an epic experience isn't as persuasive as it should be, and a large amount of it is due to how trite and dry the rest of the film is, but it doesn't try to sell war as a worthwhile pursuit. So it has that going for it, which is nice.

Watch this instead?: I'd go with the endearing “Joyeux Noël,” also a World War I film based on real events, and the epic World War II film “Atonement” over this.  

         "Joyeux Noël" also proves Christmas can be magical regardless of the circumstances.