Benediction

Dir. Terence Davies. 2021, 137 mins. DCP. With Jack Lowden, Peter Capaldi, Simon Russell Beale, Jeremy Irvine, Kate Phillips, Gemma Jones, Ben Daniels, Calam Lynch, Anton Lesser, Tom Blyth, Matthew Tennyson, Geraldine James. In this aching, unorthodox historical drama, the great British director Davies tells the story of the pacifist poet and veteran Siegfried Sassoon, whose experiences fighting in the first world war forever transformed him. Played exquisitely by Lowden and Capaldi in his younger and older incarnations, Sassoon functions as a veiled surrogate for Davies himself, a figure of rage, torment, and immense wit whose life and art come to represent so much about the social realities of twentieth-century British gay life. Benediction is an emotionally overwhelming requiem that unites Davies’s singular talents for both Noel Coward-esque drawing-room repartee and a deeper, poetic depiction of trauma, shame, and the unending hope for salvation. 

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. Review safety protocols before your visit.