Regeneration

A highbrow war flick. Be sure to not expect any big battle scenes, gory action or stories of epic comradery, this is a slow and well-articulated reflection on war. It was a bit too uptight for my liking, but since I'm not that big a fan of war cinema, this turned out to be a welcome change of pace.

After World War I, two soldiers are sent to a mental hospital to recover. They struggle with survivor's guilt, and they find it hard to deal with the atrocities they have witnessed during the war. In order to get better, they are urged to write about their feelings. The both of them turn out to be very adept poets.

The performances are solid, the soundtrack is nice and the lack of standard war heroics is refreshing. The pacing is quite slow though and the dialogues are a bit overworked. Even though the film tries very hard to be deep and introspective, the drama feels a bit cheap at times. Interesting film, but overall not that successful.