Benediction

Jeremy Irvine and Jack Lowden in Benediction

A somber meditation on spiritual longing, Terence Davies' Benediction is a very good biopic of the poet and World War 1 veteran, Siegfried Sassoon. Perhaps not up to the level of The House of Mirth or A Quiet Passion (itself a biopic of Emily Dickinson), but very much a product of Mr. Davies' pen and vision. The film could have been called Distant Voices, Still Lives 2 or Distant Voices, Still Camera.

Despite my jape, Davies' fixed camera is appropriate to this tale of remembrance, loss, and trauma. Davies' shows how Sassoon's wartime experiences haunted him for the rest of his days. When played by Jack Lowden as a younger man cavorting with the Bright Young Things, Sassoon's wounds are evident. By the time Peter Capaldi takes over the role for Sassoon's dotage, he is a dry husk of a man living in the "vanished vigil of my days" with a glimmer of intelligence, but no empathy. Sassoon's conversion to Roman Catholicism is handled ambivalently, there is no road to Damascus moment, but his hunger for grace is palpable.

Davies' sagely uses newsreel footage accompanied by Lowden's recitation of Sassoon's poetry to picture The Great War. These are used as flashbacks contrasted with his life before and after World War 2. Thus, Davies portrays Sassoon as never escaping the torment of the war, particularly the loss of his close companion and fellow poet, Wilfred Owen. Davies' use of newsreel footage probably stemmed from economic constraints, but the macabre clips are suitably horrifying.

Davies' has compacted the scope of Sassoon's life. His mysterious wartime wounding and an affair with a Hessian prince are just some of the intriguing episodes that he has excised, this feature film would have had to expand into a ten hour series in order to explore Sassoon in full. Despite a meagre budget, Davies was able to land an impressive cast for Benediction. There are no bad performances and quite a few superb ones: especially Simon Russell Beale, Julian Sands, Calam Lynch, Jeremy Irvine, Ben Daniels, and Suzanne Bertish. Despite his excellent reading of Sassoon's work, Jack Lowden is merely serviceable. His performance lacks the poet's grandiloquence and self regard. Peter Capaldi, however, makes Sassoon's hollowness devastating. 

Davies is overly literary, at times. When he has Sassoon criticize lover Stephen Tennant's narcissism, the effect is redundant because Davies has already established this visually (Tennant is forever gazing at his reflection in a mirror). Nevertheless, Davies' taste and talent are never in doubt throughout Benediction. It is one of the more rewarding films of the past year.