Benediction

There is no happy-go-lucky ending here, only the sense that an ineffable longing we have, to know and be known, is so precious and rare that most of us never find its fulfillment here on Earth.

Davies is a remarkably empathetic filmmaker, attuned to his characters’ subtlest moods and intent on equally depicting their joys, hardships, and mundane middle grounds.

Davies’s careful craftsmanship and keen sense of melancholy (as opposed to melodrama) keeps the film subtle, but not benign; its portrait of the artist as a broken man gets under your skin.

The recountal is tinged with documentary footage and nigh-experimental scintilla attempting to visualize the stuff of poetry that hint at this being something exceptional from a master's intellect.

Vividly moving.

Benediction isn’t bad; even a lesser film by this man is better than most, but it is very much a curate’s egg.

Benediction is achingly sad but poignant – like all great art it elicits empathy for the subject and the many, many young men who were lost due to wars out of their control&#59; whether those be on a battlefield or in their personal lives.

With immersive visual poetry, Benediction redefines what a good biopic can be.

Terence Davies often comes across like a guy who was born at the age of 55, but some of his quiet, patient movies are fantastic. This is one of his better ones...

Any film or piece of art in general is going to in some sense reflect the artist, but biopics should at least try to capture a sense of the life and perspective of those they’re depicting.