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Testament Of Youth

TESTAMENT OF YOUTH (James Kent). 129 minutes. Opens Friday (June 19). See listing. Rating: NN


Testament Of Youth is old-fashioned to a fault. Director James Kent shapes this tribute to Vera Brittain into a classic wartime romance while failing to do justice to a pioneering feminist and pacifist.

The movie adapts Brittain’s bestselling memoir about the men she lost and her ideological shift during the First World War. Indie “it girl” Alicia Vikander gives a stellar performance as Brittain when she’s not tasked with fawning over a man.

Early sections waste energy on the protagonist’s Austen-lite flirtation with fiancé Roland (Kit Harington), a non-starter despite scenes of awkward chivalry amidst wilting petals and linens fluttering in the breeze. Harington is either a bad match for Vikander or the stilted script makes his character someone we don’t care to see survive.

The material may have been better suited to a miniseries format. That way Brittain’s episodic story could breathe and her relationships be felt. As it is, the film lurches from idyllic countryside youth to early struggles at Oxford and then to her experiences as a nurse tending mutilated soldiers while tense-ly anticipating bad news about her brother Edward (Taron Egerton), who makes a deeper impression than Roland.

As soon as Roland is out of the picture, Vikander’s precise performance takes charge, her delicate face – often seen in close-up – registering trauma, defeat and renewed purpose.

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