TESTAMENT OF YOUTH: A Beautiful, Heartbreaking Tribute

Testament Of Youth is based on Vera Brittain‘s memoir of the same name. Her book pays homage to her own losses while growing up during World War I, but also the great loss felt by her generation. Brittain‘s book is perhaps unique in that in the UK we are often told about the loss of life during the war. It changed us, in serious and irrevocable ways. But so rarely do we hear first hand accounts of the people who were left behind, those that weren’t in the trenches, the ones that had to go on after the war had ended. I have a great interest in films about the two world wars, particularly those that focus on women, so I was in Testament Of Youth’s demographic. But while I was prepared to feel something I was not prepared for the heartbreak that such a film would leave me with.

An Impressive Production

Testament Of Youth is a finely produced film. While it’s always difficult to gauge an adaptation’s accuracy, screenwriter Juliette Towhidi’s (Death Comes To Pemberley) work on Brittain‘s memoir appears faultless. Towhidi has constructed a narrative which evenly binds together the stories of Brittain‘s own life with those of the men she knew, and brilliantly holds stable Brittain‘s central narrative as the dominoes fall around her.

James Kent had previously only directed TV productions before Testament Of Youth. But this is perhaps to his advantage, as he is able to focus on the detail and texture that would perhaps be glossed over in many a feature film production. There is the occasion, during Testament Of Youth, to feel a sense of distance from (and between) the characters. But this is more likely to do with the fact that these were real people, living in a more guarded world. It’s very easy for a screenwriter or director to layer the emotion on thickly in fiction, but braver to stick to the recording of how things no doubt were. And for this Towhidi and Kent must be applauded.

Testament Of Youth can also be lauded for its excellent casting. While its central cast are relatively young and unknown, but talented nonetheless, their support contains the likes of Emily Watson, Miranda Richardson, Anna Chancellor and a beyond brilliant Dominic West. They provide a great foundation of experience and in their small roles give great depth to the world which Vera Brittain occupies.

Vera & Roland

Testament Of Youth’s selling point is that it is a World War I romance. Which, I feel, is perhaps missing the point. Nevertheless it is an important part of the narrative and one which needs addressing. Vera Brittain is played by Alicia Vikander, and needless to say, her performance is brilliant. She mixes vulnerability with a great passion and anger, and really gives depth to Vera’s plight. Which is that, like most women of the time (Brittain was 20 at the outbreak of WWI), she had to fight for her place. Vera’s fight was to attend Oxford University.

But as soon as Vera is relieved of her place in her parents’ home she falls in love with Roland Leighton. This part of the film is an incredible insight into Vera’s, and essentially, any woman’s life at this time. Even though she is finally living away from home, any movement she makes with a man must be governed over by chaperone. It is claustrophobic, and a point which the filmmakers weave into the narrative excellently.

Roland Leighton is played by Kit Harington, and this is the one part of the film which I feel lets itself down. Harington is not great as Leighton, I don’t really feel his depth or emotion in his love for Vera or his apparent shellshock on his return from the front. It definitely feels like something is missing. Now, this may have a lot to do with the fact that despite what fiction shows us, men had to be much more restrained at the time. But I do still feel that Harington underperformed in what is the film’s major narrative point.

Vera & Victor

In the background of Vera’s relationship with Roland is that of her friendship with Victor Richardson. It is clear from the outset that Victor has a crush on Vera, but throughout the film he frequently comes up short in her eyes. Richardson is played by Colin Morgan (Merlin) and acts as a romantic comparison to Leighton. Richardson appears undeveloped as a character but I feel this is more to do with the way Vera dismisses him. In either case, Morgan’s performance is excellent: emotional but restrained.

Vera & Edward

When I say that seeing Testament Of Youth as a romance is missing the point, it is because the central and strongest narrative is that of Vera and her brother Edward (played by Taron Egerton). Vera and Edward’s bond is deep and their love for one another is so great that it makes Vera’s relationship with Leighton pale in comparison.

Vera and Edward shared something special, and Vikander and Egerton do their relationship great justice. Their chemistry is astounding, and their individual performances are outstanding. Though splendid throughout, Vera’s relationship with Edward brings out a great depth in Vikander’s performance, while Egerton’s presence on screen is simply mesmerising. It is one of Egerton’s most amiable attributes that he has a kindness to him that he is able to bring to his characters, and in Edward he creates a warm and heartfelt performance. Although he was younger than Vera, Edward was her protector. And Egerton more than fills the presence that Edward no doubt held in her life.

It is a great shame that Edward’s homosexuality was too great and complex a story to be included in this film. But it is a credit to Egerton’s performance and Hunt’s direction that I understood Edward to be gay even before I learnt of his story. He was an outstanding presence in Vera’s life, with a story all his own which will hopefully one day come to the cinema screen. Egerton portrays him as perfectly as I can imagine, and his performance is one that I will not forget.

A Testament

Vera was a unique and brilliant woman. She was a young woman fighting to be heard. But when the odds were finally stacked in her favour, and she was faced with a new and harsh reality, she chose a different path. It is a great testament to Brittain’s character that in a time when she could have so easily put herself first, and with the blessing of the men in her life, she chose instead to pay witness to her lost generation and go on to represent them.

By choosing this path Vera made sure that even now, 100 years later, we would learn not just of the men in the trenches or the workers on the home front, but the people left behind. The people who would lose so much and go on to live in a much different world, without the ones they loved. And by producing this film the makers have ensured that her story will be passed on to a whole new generation, and for that they have my utmost respect.

Conclusion

Testament Of Youth is a brilliant and original film. And one that grows in my memory. As times goes on I am drawn back again and again to the pain of Vera’s experiences. Her young and happy life, her selfish but important hopes and dreams, crushed under the shadow of World War I. How did she ever come back from that? What do you do when the people who mean most to you are gone, along with the person that you were, and the life that you had hoped to have? Can anyone come back from that?

A great film is one that rises above the ‘unpacking’ that film criticism does. And long after I’ve wondered how Saoirse Ronan would have faired in the role of Vera, whether someone could have done better than Kit Harington, and what Towhidi might have missed from Brittain’s book, I will think of Vera Brittain swimming alone in that pond and I will wonder whether she was ever truly happy again. That it lingers, so long after the credits have rolled, that is the mark of a truly great film.

Testament Of Youth is out in the UK on DVD & Blu-Ray and currently on limited cinema release in the US.

Have you seen Testament Of Youth? What did you think of it?

(top image source: Lions Gate Entertainment)