Benediction

137 mins, UK (English)
Directed by Terence Davies (2021)

Known primarily today as an anti-war poet, Siegfried Sassoon’s life is rich with contradictions that make a life-spanning narrative the perfect approach. Awarded for his gallantry in World War I, he went on to fiercely oppose the war. Openly gay among the Bright Young Things in 1920s London, he nevertheless settled into heterosexual marriage and Catholicism in his later years.

Played by Jack Lowden (Dunkirk) in his youth and Peter Capaldi in his later years, director Terence Davies is characteristically commanding in building a portrait as complex as the man himself. Benediction ranks among Davies’ very best.