Benediction: Lowden, Irvine Embody Two Real-Life Artists

Benediction, Terence Davies’ somber and affecting non-linear cinematic telling of the life of  20th century English poet Siegfried Sassoon, explores anti-war themes as well as same sex desire. The film is set at a time in history where such attractions were forbidden but punishment was usually reserved for the lower classes. Davies, himself, has admitted to struggling with being gay, and Benediction gives him the perfect vehicle to channel his angsty and complex energies. Young Sassoon is embodied by Jack Lowden (Dunkirk, Slow Horses) who anchors the film delivering nuanced and tender work as a poet who dares to think for himself--which often got him in trouble. Sassoon lived fairly-openly as a gay man and had a series of ill-fated love affairs with other “Bright Young Things“ of the 1920s, including the singer/actor/divo, Ivor Novello, played with great wit and pernicious whimsy by Jeremy Irvine (The Railway Man, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again). This is Davies’ version of Novello via how he thou