Above: Alicia Vikander is Vera Britain in Mr. Kent's movie. Photo ©Sony Pictures Classics
“Testament of Youth” stars the
fast-rising Alicia Vikander (portrayer of the serene robot Ava in “Ex Machina”)
as Vera Britain, a young woman who’s forced to watch all the men she knows
(lover, brother, friend) trek off to the battlefields of World War I. Actually, she doesn’t just watch; Vera’s role
in the war is arguably more crucial. Shunting
aside her studies at Oxford, she becomes a nurse, thrusting herself into the
same muck and blood that soldiers are marching through and dying in.
Is there any point mentioning that about half the cast of
“Testament of Youth” dies? Hardly; this
is a war film, and a dreary one at that.
But when Vera stands before a jeering crowd to rail against not just
this war, but all wars, I felt something.
As it turns out, the film (which was drawn from the real Vera’s memoir)
hinges on a great coup—it never telegraphs the steady build of Vera’s pacifist
conviction. Instead, it lets its earnest
call to peace seep through Ms. Vikander’s heartbroken face, until all her
grief, rage, and idealism burst out in one beautiful moment that can’t be
shaken from your consciousness.
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