POWERFUL DRAMA ON EVE OF 100TH ANNIVERSARY

Journey’s End (12A) Verdict: Powerful and timely

THIS is an irreproachably solid adaptation of RC Sherriff’s 1928 play about the physical and psychological realities of life in the First World War trenches.

It is very well-acted by an excellent cast and while it never manages to pull away from its theatrical roots, it’s still a powerful drama. Powerfully-timed, too. It arrives in cinemas 100 years after the week in which it is set, just before the Germans’ Spring Offensive of 1918.

Sam Claflin plays Captain Stanhope, a brave, committed soldier, who is increasingly reliant on the contents of a whisky bottle, and on the wise support of his second-in-command, Lieutenant Osborne (Paul Bettany). Stanhope has a sweetheart at home, whose younger brother, Second Lieutenant Raleigh (Asa Butterfield), arrives to join his company. Stanhope is horrified; not least because he thinks Raleigh will write to his sister and tell her what her beau has become.

With these emotions swirling, they are ordered by an absent brigadier to make a suicidal charge at the Germans.

All the acting is top-notch and while it’s a stretch to believe only three years separate the world-weary Stanhope and Raleigh, who looks about 14, maybe that’s the point.

Wars do that to people, then as now.