Technically brilliant but something missing

Rating: 7/10 (20 January 2020)

Throughout the film there are some cinematically beautiful scenes, and a clear style throughout. A personal story from the director adds to the films emotion and story.
However I couldn't help feeling that something was missing. The handful of inaccuracies were not a major issue for me, as opposed to some of the other more critical reviews on here.
The film started to take a "Revenant" turn from approximately 30 mins in, whereby we saw the main character running from place to place avoiding death and pulling through terrible experiences but started to feel overly dramatised at times.
The acting didn't come across real to me, and although there are certainly some stand-out performances, overall it did feel like watching actors rather than an original, heartfelt performance that the director intended.
We did see the visuals of the horrors of World War one but overall it lacked some of the grit to add the depth and emphasis to make this truely poignant with the viewers.
I wanted to love this film but something was certainly missing for me and it would not be justified to pretend otherwise!