Steve Rhodes Reviews:
Regeneration
-1/2
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Steve Rhodes' reviews are presented online as a service to our readers. They remain the property of Steve Rhodes and are not substantially edited by this publication nor do they necessarily represent the views of its publisher, editor or other staff members.
REGENERATION, inspired by some actual events from World War I, tells the story of the imprisoned poet, Siegfried Sassoon. Sas, a military officer played by James Wilby (of MAURICE and HOWARD'S END), is sent to a Scottish hospital when he writes an illegal pamphlet against the war. The authorities figure that, once ensconced in a hospital for the shell-shocked and insane, his protests will be completely discredited.
The winner of a medal for bravery at the front, Sas is not your typical conscientious objector. He's the type of officer who arranges for his men to have tea after any long march. He is not against all wars; it's just that he thinks this one has become hopeless and is being needlessly prolonged.
As Dr. William Rivers, Sas's sympathetic physician, Jonathan Pryce gives a sincere performance. Caring for his charges is inducing a sort of shell shocked behavior in the doctor as well.
Stuart Bunce plays Wilfred Owen, who is claimed to have produced some of the best poetry to come out of the war. Sas mentors Owen, who is a fellow patient.
Jonny Lee Miller, as Billy Prior, comes to the hospital mute. The film explains that mutism is an affliction that only struck the upper classes during the war. The lower classes developed completely different problems. Even diseases, it seems, are class conscious. Once cured of his mutism, Billy goes on to form a romantic entanglement with Sarah (Tanya Allen), a local "munitionette." Their small love story has a natural, unforced quality that the rest of the film lacks.
Although the stories in the film are moving, director Gillies MacKinnon (A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE) is never able to weave them into a compelling whole. The battlefield scenes shown in flashback are singularly unrealistic looking. One attack has the men slowly falling like toddlers lying down for a nap.
The movie's visuals can be stunning. Set in a bleak but sharply lit Scottish winter, Glen MacPherson's cinematography will have your bones shaking as you admire the beauty of the countryside.
A few times, REGENERATION says something enough out of the ordinary to make you think. Typical of these is Billy's reflection that a battle charge is just like sex, "exciting and ridiculous." Too bad more of the movie wasn't as provocative.
REGENERATION runs 1:53. It is rated R for war violence.
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