On Thursday 16th October we went to Leicester Square Odeon cinema to see the debut of James Kent's new film Testament of Youth based on the book by Vera Brittain. Afterwards we sat for a q&a with him where we learned why we he chose to work on the film, the reasoning behind the way he shot certain scenes and heard some on set stories.
This film is a historical drama based on the memoirs of Vera Brittain written in 1933. Vera, played by Alicia Vikander, was a girl unlike the others of her time and dedicated herself to study opposed to finding a suitable husband. She does however go on to fall for Roland ( Kit Harrington ) and after he signs up to fight in World War I she postpones her studies at Oxford to serve as a nurse in London and later on France.
I really enjoyed this film as it told a coming of age story and was believable to the time period it was set in. Its use of costume and non diegetic sound is what I think helped make this convincing as both were familiar to that era. I think the actors chosen played the parts well and Vikander made it easy for the audience to get attached to her character through showing realistic emotion in every scene she was in. Although the film told Brittain's memories how she recorded them I feel the film was a bit long and tried to include too many of her experiences and not focusing on the most important part of the film for long enough.
I would give the film a 7/10 as I was kept interested the whole way through and think that its important that people like Vera Brittain be remembered, however for me the film was too long and hard to understand. For example, at times it was hard to tell the difference between Roland, her brothers and their friends also her relationship with Roland developed quickly through various letters without us really seeing when it began.
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