For a film-maker as wonderful as Davies, Benediction is a missed opportunity.

There is no happy-go-lucky ending here, only the sense that an ineffable longing we have, to know and be known, is so precious and rare that most of us never find its fulfillment here on Earth.

Davies is a remarkably empathetic filmmaker, attuned to his characters’ subtlest moods and intent on equally depicting their joys, hardships, and mundane middle grounds.

I felt nothing: Davies’ busy imagery obfuscates the poem’s power. He’s the wrong director for this film. He doesn’t the trust the poets.