Testament of Youth

The first thing you need to know about the film Testament of Youth is that it stars my boyfriend Kit Harington (you may know him better as Jon Snow from Game of Thrones).  I could listen to that boy recite poetry all day!  The second thing you need to know is that it is a coming of age story about an unconventional young woman set against the backdrop of World War I, which is a particular interest of mine.  I tell you this because you may want to take my gushing review with a grain of salt!  I literally couldn't help but love this film and love it I most certainly did!  It is 1914 and Vera Brittain (Alicia Vikander from Ex Machina) wants nothing more than to be allowed to study at Oxford like her younger brother, Edward (Taron Egerton), and his friends who are spending their break with her family.  A romance develops between Vera and Roland (Harington), one of her brother's friends, and when she is accepted to Oxford she is equally excited about the possibility of becoming a writer and about being near Roland.  When England enters the war, Edward and his friends, including Roland, enlist in high spirits longing for adventure and eager to do their duty for King and country.  When Roland comes back from France on leave, he tells Vera of the horrors of trench warfare so she decides to leave school and become a volunteer nurse.  As Roland, Edward, and all of their friends are eventually killed, Vera begins speaking out about the futility of war.  This film portrays both the dreamlike world of pre-war England with beautiful scenes in the countryside and the brutality of war with stark images of the trenches and bloody close-ups of the row upon row of wounded.  Vikander is in practically every scene and she is brilliant at portraying so many different emotions:  giddiness as she falls in love with Roland (he writes her poetry!), determination to succeed at Oxford, despair as she nurses the wounded, overwhelming grief when she learns of Roland's death, and passion as she speaks out against war.  Harington is also amazing, particularly when he tells Vera that he has lost all of the poetry inside him at the front.  There are so many scenes that stand out in my mind but one is especially poignant.  Vera learns that her brother has been brought to the field hospital but she can't find him.  She eventually locates him among the dead lying on the ground.  In her grief, she embraces him and realizes that he is still alive.  My great-grandfather was wounded and presumed dead in the battle of Ypres.  When his brother went back to the battlefield to look for his body, he discovered that he was still alive and saved him!  I cried during that scene.  On a lighter note, I laughed during a scene when Vera and Roland elude her chaperon to steal a kiss.  It is based on Vera Brittain's best-selling memoir of the same name so, not only do I want to see this film again, but I also want to read the book (I am currently reading Stefan Zweig's memoir of World War I called The World of Yesterday).

Note:  I accidentally met my dear friends Scott and Toni at this film.  Actually, I am surprised I haven't run into them before because we are all film aficionados and night owls who end up at the Broadway Theatre at least once a week!