Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Terence Davies
Starring: Jack Lowden, Peter Capaldi, Simon Russell Beale, Jeremy Irvine, Calam Lynch, Kate Phillips, Gemma
Jones, Ben Daniels
Writer/director Terence Davies follows up his Emily Dickinson
biopic,
A Quiet Passion, with another story of a tortured poet. "A Quiet Passion" might be
an equally fitting title for this look at the life of British poet
Siegfried Sassoon, best known for his documenting of the horrors he
had experienced in the trenches of World War I in his verse. Davies is
a quintessentially English filmmaker, and Benediction is
a very English film, one where characters keep their passions largely
silent out of societal necessity.
Davies' approach to Sassoon's story is similar in some ways to
Abel Ferrara's Pasolini biopic, looking past the artist to find a very human figure, one tortured
by guilt, doubt and loneliness. As a young man Sassoon is played by
the handsome Jack Lowden, while in his later years he's
portrayed by the craggy-faced Peter Capaldi. I don’t mean any
disrespect to Capaldi, who looks pretty damn good for a man in his
sixties, but the contrast is striking and plays a vital role in the
narrative. As a handsome young gay man fortunate enough to move in
high society circles where such assets are prized, the young Sassoon
seems to have the world at his feet, while later his glum, elder self
finds himself stuck in a loveless heterosexual sham marriage. "Why do
you hate the modern world?" the poet's son asks him. "Because it's
younger than I am" is his caustic reply. We're left in little doubt
that the 76-year-old Davies, whose films have always had a nostalgic
tinge, may see a little of himself in the aging Sassoon.
It's as a young man that we spend most of our time with Sassoon
however, picking up as he is discharged from the war for disorderly
conduct by opposing the conflict. Much to his annoyance, strings are
pulled so he can avoid a court martial that carries a possible death
sentence. The terms of the agreement require him to spend time in a
Scottish psychiatric hospital, where thanks to a sympathetic doctor
(Ben Daniels) he comes to terms with his sexuality and enters
the first of several key relationships with the poet Wilfred Owen (Matthew Tennyson). Owen's subsequent death in France adds to Sassoon's survivor's
guilt, which dogs him throughout the rest of his days.
Plunging himself into the excesses of the post-war Jazz Age, Sassoon
finds himself a celebrated figure, with men and women throwing
themselves at his feet. He enters a doomed relationship with
entertainer Ivor Novello (an unrecognisable Jeremy Irvine), for
whom Sassoon is just one in a line of pretty boys to share his bed.
Novello is portrayed as a cad of almost cartoonish levels, and were it
not for his narcissistic preening himself in every reflective surface
he passes, we might compare him to a vampire, sucking the lifeforce
out of adoring young men until they're of no further use to him. Even
more superficial is socialite Stephen Tennant (Calam Lynch),
portrayed as such a stereotypical fop that were
Benediction not made by a gay man it might be viewed as
problematic. Yet despite how awful these figures are, Sassoon finds
himself in love and ultimately heartbroken. I can think of few films
that have portrayed the dating world as coldly as
Benediction.
Benediction is very much a companion piece to
A Quiet Passion, with Davies transferring the storytelling template he adopted for
Dickinson onto Sassoon. Again the poet's words are heard in voiceover,
and again Davies manages to come up with dialogue of his own that we
swallow as having come from the mind of someone who wields words like
a wizard wields a wand. There are cutting barbs flung around here of
the sort Oscar Wilde might be proud of, and while the film is tinged
with sadness it's not without its laughs. Like Dickinson, Sassoon is
shown to be someone who uses humour as a defence mechanism. But thanks
to the performances of Lowden and Capaldi, Davies makes it clear that
while Sassoon may be laughing on the outside, he's burdened with an
eternally tortured soul.
