A Testement of Youth (2014)

Film based on Vera Brittain’s 1933 memoirs of the same name.

I read the book ages ago but only in February 2017 did I get round to watching the film. BBCi Player to the rescue yet again.

I didn’t quite know what to expect with this film. What I remembered of the memoir was that it was very long and involved. And, with this film, I was pleasantly surprised. Dare I say it, I was even moved.

Alicia Vikander plays Vera Brittain, a young Oxford student whose life is utterly changed by World War I, when she loses her fiance and her brother to the conflict. When reading the book, I realised that there are few memoirs which show how those left behind by the Lost Generation survived after all they knew had been battered beyond recognition.

This film is slow-moving, so I’d not recommend this film to people who don’t enjoy slow-moving films. Visually, this film is also a treat as it comes across as dreamlike and harrowing in equal measure.

There is plenty of star talent to keep this film going, and the film itself is very emotional. It reminds me a bit of All Quiet on the Western Front because both films show how society can be ruptured by war.

Vikander’s Brittain came across at first as incredibly obnoxious however this character progression was not needlessly done as she was clearly trying to question women’s place in a changing society.

A highly recommend you watch this film, or read the memoir.

MY RATING: **** / *****