‘Benediction’ Film Review: Terence Davies Confirms His Status as Poet Laureate of Biopics
thewrap.com“Bright Young Things.”The name-dropping does get a bit fast and furious for those not up on their literary-society figures of Britain between the wars — there’s a somewhat awkward introduction of T.E.
Lawrence at one point — but Sassoon led the kind of life that brought him into constant contact with the glitterati of the moment.
And while there’s an entire sub-genre of media about the rich and beautiful gay men of the era forced by society into the closet (“Maurice,” “Brideshead Revisited”), the inclusion of Ross as a fairly major character helps to underscore the cultural context; the Wilde trial, after all, had taken place in 1895, a recent memory for this entire generation.It’s a portrait of dreams dashed and emotional potential unfulfilled.
Peter Capaldi takes the reins as an older Sassoon, bitterly dissatisfied with his conformist marriage to Hester Gatty (Kate Phillips, then Gemma Jones).
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