Testament of youth by Alex Thomson 17/10/201

Testament of youth is based on the life of vera best selling book which is still being sold after its realises in 1933 of the same name. directed by James Kent which has previously directed the "white queen" and "inside men" and stars Alicia Vikander as the main character Vera Brittien.

in the review ill be focusing on 2 major points of the film adaptation of the book which is based on real happenings:

• narrative/context of film
• characters/performance

testament of youth is set during 1913-1920 and little further on and this is at the start to end of world war 1 so get the tissues ready its gonna be a  tear jerker. world war 1 was a sad sad sad time for England where food was getting low and people where starting to believe we were going to lose this war a be over run by Nazi's as well as this it was a extremely hard time for woman before the war woman had to work harder to get into college/university and they were still seen as objects for men to be given and up until 1918 women were not aloud a vote but that year that was changed so this shows it was hard to be a women in a world ruled by men.

The narrative of the film is good the pacing is slower then most of film's but the detail that each scene does to set the emotion and tone of that scene is something to behold. the film starts at the end of ww1 were there is partying in the streets as Vera the main character is standing alone not smiling as everyone else is almost obvious of what is happening which is emphasised with the sound being drowned out as if she's in deep fault but then we are treated to a rewind of 4 years before the war started and was only hinted at. Vera is there with her brother Edward and one of his school buddies victor at a lake and them having a good time. after about 2 minutes in a lake they start to walk home as she is outraged that her farther has brought her a brand new grand piano and then complaining that she wanted to go to Oxford  (ungrateful brat)  we are then introduced in the middle of her argument with her farther Roman another school buddy of Edward, while Roman is there Vera lets out a fem mine side and grows affectionate towards him and eventually wanting to date her but this could not of happened at a worst time as world war has been highly likely and then the war is declared and all men sign up for the fast and easy war the media said but this is when Vera is tested with all her friends and family that are male off to war. if you want to find out the rest of the story watch the film.

The characters in this film have a few main ones and a few important side characters the main characters are:

• Vera Britten
• Roland Leighton
• Edward Britten
• Victor Richardson

the side characters are:

• Mr Britten
• Mrs Britten
• aunt Florence

all of whom give a stealer performance with each one of these characters and showing the purist form of emotion making us believe that we are apart of the war at home as it was for the characters that actually lived it i cannot fault the acting in this film with each expression making the audience laugh, smile, cry (which I did a little bit) which means i cant fault the performance of these actors

in conclusion testament of youth can be compared to great films such as "a very long engagement" which is about a female protagonist and a love interest that goes to war. This film could of been better maybe more viewing of what it was like on the front maybe have it be inspired by instead of based on since this means there could of been more of a creative element to this as this is what i belilive lets it down but it is a brilliant film all the same.