Benediction: Film Review

Jack Lowden gives the performance of his career so far playing famed war poet Siegfried Sassoon in Terence Davies‘ biographical drama Benediction.

The film begins in earnest in 1917 when Sassoon publicly voices his objection to the war and is sent to a psychiatric hospital in Scotland, where he befriends fellow war poet Wilfred Owen (Matthew Tennyson). Following the war, the film focuses on Sassoon’s relationships with various high-profile men, including entertainer Ivor Novello (Jeremy Irvine) and socialite Stephen Tennant (Calam Lynch). Peter Capaldi plays an older Sassoon, who has become very bitter.

I enjoyed the scenes with Lowden as Sassoon the most and thankfully these make up the majority of the film. His portion was more entertaining and compelling and there are some brilliantly written back-and-forth tetchy conversations between Sassoon and his lovers, especially when they’re breaking up/about to break up. I laughed aloud a few times at their bitchiness!

I liked the film less with Capaldi as Sassoon. I understand why it was important to include his scenes – they show us how Sassoon’s choices as a young man affected him in the long term and turned such an affable gent into a grump. But there was too much of him and I grew a bit bored.

The earlier scenes are intercut with black and white footage from the war with Lowden reciting Sassoon’s poems and letters. These are really effective and made sense at the start, given that Sassoon served in the war and then voiced his disapproval of it. This device didn’t feel right towards the end because the film had stopped being about the war for a long while by that point.

Lowden has never been better than he is here. Sassoon wants to be in a serious monogamous relationship but all his lovers have different ideas. He has a charming, likeable presence, which is in stark contrast to Capaldi as the sourpuss. It was so interesting seeing Irvine as Novello as I didn’t know much about the actor/songwriter and had never seen Irvine play someone so unpleasant and pompous.

I was aware of the name Seigfried Sassoon but I knew very little about his personal life so I found Benediction an enlightening watch.

BENEDICTION will be released on 20th May in UK and Irish cinemas. For more information, head to https://benedictionfilm.co.uk/