A First World War memoir is retold in Testament of Youth

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      Starring Alicia Vikander. Rating unavailable.

      Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth, published in 1933, stands as a landmark memoir of World War I, which destroyed an entire generation of young Englishmen a century ago, presaging an even bigger conflagration to come. As a teenager, its author fought sexism at home and at Oxford, and she became a leading sufragette and peace activist after her own time as a frontline nurse.

      Brittain was the subject of a five-hour BBC miniseries in 1979, and this 129-minute slog dutifully hits the notes you’d expect from a tale of privileged people rushing headlong into a conflict far worse than any can imagine.

      Swedish up-and-comer Alicia Vikander, so impressive as the sexy robot in Ex Machina, is slightly stiffer as Brittain. Her nonattempt at a regional accent doesn’t help, but mainly the role is hampered by a lack of tonal variety; Vera is miffed at the start and royally pissed-off by Armistice Day, where the movie begins, for no good reason. A series of bad things happen to her, but there’s no inner arc to show how she became such a colourful figure between the wars.

      Also sketchy are the men in her life, including dear brother (Kingsman’s Taron Egerton, strong), confused love interest (Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington, weak), and softhearted father (The Affair’s Dominic West, not bad).

      The real crime, in this ostensibly feminist tale, is how little Emily Watson is given to do as a dully feeble Mrs. Brittain. Miranda Richardson begins to establish her character as a crusty schoolmistress and is then forgotten.

      The set-dressing is flawless, and historical settings seem accurate, with wartime chronology grinding gears through newspaper headlines and such. Oddly, though, one character comments on someone having the “Spanish flu” in 1914. The worldwide flu pandemic actually happened in the immediate aftermath of the war, four years later, killing far more people than did the conflict itself. British researchers later theorized that it was spawned at a troop hospital in Étaples, France—the very location where Vera spends her years as a nurse near the front.

      This Testament is also careful to introduce us to two people who would help shape Brittain’s life and career: future husband George Catlin and fellow Oxford student Winifred Holtby, the subject of Brittain’s follow-up book, Testament of Friendship. But like everything else here, these moves feel perfunctory. Inexperienced feature director James Kent (a BBC-TV veteran) lards up the running time with countless flashbacks to things that were obvious the first time, and his sense of pacing is deadly throughout. Much of this is down to a by-the-numbers script from Juliette Towhidi, whose Love, Rosie was one of last year’s bona fide stinkers. There may always be an England, but this Brittain is for the birds.

      Comments

      4 Comments

      Lena Murray

      Jun 17, 2015 at 1:05pm

      And Americans should steer clear of writing about English history - or at least film reviewers. To take just a few of your mistakes in this short piece:
      1. The FWW didn't destroy an entire generation of English men. What an absurd statement. Think about it.
      2. Vera Brittain wasn't a suffragette. She was active the generation AFTER the suffragettes.
      3. The memoir was published in 1933.

      Shall I go on?

      Miranda Nelson

      Jun 17, 2015 at 1:22pm

      Thank you for the correction on the date; I've updated the text.

      According to 1921 census data, the deaths of 700,000 U.K. soldiers during World War One "resulted in a particularly large gap between the male and female populations of people aged 25 to 34 with 1,158,000 unmarried women and 919,000 unmarried men." Yes, it didn't wipe out the entire generation, but it certainly had a significant detrimental impact. See also: hyperbole.

      Suffrage wasn't extended to all British women over the age of 21 until 1928 and Brittain's book covers the period 1900–1925.

      Thank you from a Canadian publication.

      Lena Murray

      Jun 18, 2015 at 10:44am

      I repeat Vera Brittain wasn't a suffragette. The suffragette movement actually laid down its weapons in 1914 on the declaration of war. If you read Vera Brittain's journalism or her biographies you'll find that she supported the non-militants, the suffragists.
      No, there is no evidence that the FWW wiped out a generation of young men in Britain. Statistically population figures show that numbers remained about level because there was a high level of men emigrating from Britain before the war, and in wartime they were no longer permitted to do so. Figures pre and post war remained about level therefore. The situation was very different in France and Germany.
      Another stinker, since you deal in emotive language: why on earth should Vera Brittain have a regional accent?? Vikander's accent, received pronunciation, is precisely what a young woman,who had attended a private school and received elocution lessons, would have had.

      Miranda Nelson

      Jun 18, 2015 at 10:55am

      Because it's a movie, not a documentary.