My score for this film is not based on how good the film is as that is a subjective viewpoint. Indeed, many people have rated this as a 10/10 but for me, I didn't really enjoy or like this much.
Before I go on, I need to add some context. I have seen two Terence Davies films before this and really liked them both. I love his melancholic feel to his films, the cinematography was wonderful, beautiful scores and nuanced performances. I also know and am reasonably interested in the life of Sassoon and am particularly interested in his life in WW1. I also have no issue with homosexuality (I am clarifying this as some reviews make the assumption that anybody marking this down is a bigot or a homophobe).
As above I liked the cinematography, the score, the acting, the melancholy, and the beauty.
But, I also found this muddled, poor in its narrative, poorly paced, overlong and ultimately I found the focus on his sex life just plain dull. Was this his life, was this what was important in his life and of so, it is given no context, how did this shape Sassoon? We don't really know. Sassoon ended up out of place and bitter but it is not do the narrative that the film is based on at all, as he was always like this seemingly. Overall, I found this disappointing but not totally without merit.
Before I go on, I need to add some context. I have seen two Terence Davies films before this and really liked them both. I love his melancholic feel to his films, the cinematography was wonderful, beautiful scores and nuanced performances. I also know and am reasonably interested in the life of Sassoon and am particularly interested in his life in WW1. I also have no issue with homosexuality (I am clarifying this as some reviews make the assumption that anybody marking this down is a bigot or a homophobe).
As above I liked the cinematography, the score, the acting, the melancholy, and the beauty.
But, I also found this muddled, poor in its narrative, poorly paced, overlong and ultimately I found the focus on his sex life just plain dull. Was this his life, was this what was important in his life and of so, it is given no context, how did this shape Sassoon? We don't really know. Sassoon ended up out of place and bitter but it is not do the narrative that the film is based on at all, as he was always like this seemingly. Overall, I found this disappointing but not totally without merit.