My Review of Benediction (2021)

 

Written And Directed by Terence Davies

Siegfried Sassoon: "Pain is not the only terror. There are many more."

Dr. Rivers: "Can you name them?"

Siegfried Sassoon: "If I could name them, they would cease to be terrors."

As the summer concludes and there's still some Pride events happening, there's a few more LGBT themed movies I wanted to get in before the month came to an end. This was one of them of course.

Focusing on British poet and World War I combat veteran, Siegfried Sassoon, this movie split it's time between the younger and older versions of Sassoon as played by Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi respectively. Basically, twice the great acting.

Focusing on the younger version first, Sassoon was committed to a hospital having suffered trauma from his involvement in World War I. Being vocally opposed to the war's continuation also put something of a target on his back as well.

During the younger years, three of Siegfried's most significant relationships are put into focus. There's his romance with actor and musician, Ivor Novello (Jeremy Irvine). It's not a relationship that brought out the best in either man, but at least we're treated to one sex scene between the two. I'll say that Jeremy Irvine camped it up quite a bit with his portrayal of Novello.

Then there's the relationship with socialite Stephen Tennant (Calam Lynch). Lynch himself also camped it up playing Tennant but there's a delightful back and forth with the pairing that made their scenes a delight to watch. However, there's also no getting away from the fact that both Siegfried and Stephen screwed each other over.

Then Siegfried did that thing that a lot of gay men did at the time - he married a woman named Hester Gatty (Kate Phillips) and had a son with her. This was after scoffing over another gay man for doing similar earlier into the movie. On the other hand, Hester was well aware of Siegfried's sexuality but chose to marry him anyways.

There's not as much focus on his older self but with the screen time given to him, Peter Capaldi did a great job talking about Siegfried's resentment and regrets. There's some nice performances as well from Gemma Jones and Anton Lesser as the older versions of Hester and Stephen respectively. Not to mention a rather bittersweet final scene between Siegfriens and his son, George (Richard Goulding).

- Other actors who appear in this movie include Simon Russell Beale, Ben Daniels, Julian Sands, Matthew Tennyson, Tom Blyth and Harry Lawtey. Some get more scenes than others.

- The movie spaces out the references to some of Sassoon's most known work in between WW1 clips.

- Siegfried mentioned not being a fan of The Beatles. He's pretty critical about music in general.

- Chronology: World War I and 1920s and 1950s England.

Benediction was a rather nice movie that didn't overstay it's welcome. The split narrative worked and there's equally compelling performances from Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi as Sassoon in the different stages of his life.

Rating: 8 out of 10