“Benediction” (M) *** and a half

WRITER/director Terence Davies’ film delves into the cultural environment in England between World Wars I and II, the role of good poetry as a means of conveying deep thought in difficult situations, and gay men.

Siegfried Sassoon (a neat portrayal by Jack Lowden) has won the Military Cross for valour on a French battlefield, an honour rather upset by the death in battle of his younger brother. 

Siegfried accepts his sexuality as another of life’s vicissitudes. He’s more interested in the lifestyles of gay men as a condition needing gentle massaging if it is to find wider social acceptance.

The film introduces people whose names are now familiar to and accepted by folk with the wit to see the contribution that men who love other men can make to life and culture. 

Its emotional level does not delve far beyond its portrayal and acceptance behind closed windows and drawn curtains. That is more of a fact of cultural and social life in its time than a dramatic engine driving the story of men whose emotional and physical preferences defied conventional rubric.

I wonder how many of today’s culturally-informed people would recognise names such as playwright Ivor Novello (Jeremy Irvine) or poet Wilfred Owen (Matthew Tennyson) or Edith Sitwell (Lia Williams). 

The roles that these and others play in the film, except for Novello whose involvement the film treats as being more significant, are informative rather than with an important function in shaping the story.

“Benediction” runs for 137 minutes, which can be time well spent for filmgoers seeking remembrance of times past, delivered in an agreeable package.

At Palace Electric