Atonement (Widescreen Edition)

I had neither read the book nor read any film review of "Atonement" before I saw it on DVD. I was aware that Ian McEwan is a celebrated modern author but little else. In short, I saw this film with absolutely no preconceived ideas.

"Atonement" is an absolutely captivating film. Initially, it seemed like an English period piece. Yet, gradually it revealed an enthralling plot. A young girl's misconstrued evidence before the police results in life changing events for the film's main characters. The backdrop is the 1930s and then the Second World War before the full story is revealed in the current day.

Keira Knightley and James McAvoy are brilliant as the lead characters. Their
two characters are the love interest of the film. Although they both come from
very different backgrounds, their attraction to each other is obvious. The outset of the film, in particular, has real sexual frisson. Their lives, however, are soon torn asunder.

At the conclusion of the film there is a wonderful cameo piece by Vanessa Redgrave. It is her character that ties up all the loose ends. And these ends are very sad indeed. I'll say no more for fear of spoiling the film for others.

"Atonement" won the Golden Globe Award for best film. This was well warranted. The film is a masterpiece.

To put it simply, this is an amazing film, wrenching, mesmerizing, beautiful, and painful, alternating poetry and brutality. It's a story of self-righteous misunderstanding and unreliable narration (on several levels), in which the events an overly impressionable young girl witnesses lead to the destruction of two lives -- three, if you count her own life. And, like the book, the ending, in which Briony, now on the verge of death, tells the interviewer the truth she couldn't quite tell in her novel (she's not really very brave), is upsetting and painful as well. There are no clean endings in real life. The screenplay is beautifully written, and extremely close to the novel -- closer than I would have thought possible, in fact. Keira Knightley is very good as Cecelia, though she doesn't really get a chance to emote in this role, Cecelia being a rather closed-off sort of person. James McAvoy nails the part of Robbie Hunter, unjustly imprisoned on Briony's testimony and the victim of class differences -- especially in the scenes in northern France, after the bitter years of imprisonment have taken their toll. But Saoirse Ronan turns in the best work in the film as the thirteen-year-old Briony. Romola Garai is pretty good, too, as Briony at eighteen, and Vanessa Redgrave is competent in her brief section as the aging Briony. I can't think of another film in which the same character at three widely different ages, played by three actresses, has been so well developed. There's even a considerable physical resemblance among them. This is a far from light-hearted romance, or even a standard war story, and you won't forget it for a long, long time.

I was impressed with this film. I'm not keen on Kiera and this film did not change my impression of her. I thought McAvoy was excellent and he strikes me as the one to watch in the future. What I most liked about the film was music and the cinematography. The direction was also excellent (if somewhat unheralded) when you consider the scale of the film as being both big and intimate.

I'd heard a lot of hype about this movie, which naturally can be a bad thing at times. Briefly, as I'm sure there have been other reviews with a synopsis, this movie tells the story of a young girl who has a crush on an older man. One problem...he is involved in a romantic affair with her older sister. In a moment of jealousy she accuses him of raping an underaged cousin (the cousin goes along with this for reasons of her own). His life is ruined and he is sent to prison, her sister becomes estranged from the family and basically the whole incident brings ruin to everyone. Five years later, she comes to her senses and tries to "atone" (hence the title of the movie) for her former actions.

First the good...this is a well-acted movie. There can be no complaints for any of the major players in this film. Some of the more minor characters play British elites to stereotype, but the major players are tight and realistically done. Also, individual scenes within the movie are nicely done, played for good emotional effect.

However, the movie never really ties together well. Part of it is the "British" feel of the movie...like many British films (and television) it seems to take FOREVER to get going. If you didn't know what the plot was going in, you'll spend half an hour wondering what the hell this movie is about. The movie is never really able to shake it's looseness...even most British films come together once the plot is fully revealed and this one never does. I was left wondering after watching it why they even included many of the scenes they did...again, as individual scenes they were quite nice, but never really moved the narrative forward.

The ending has an interesting twist...but...it's only a twist because the movie "lies" to you. Not much more I can say without revealing the twist, but it's a "straw man" twist ending...one which is based on false premises and thus loses its impact once you realize the movie is simply backtracking, not revealing new information that fits into an existing narrative.

So I think, ultimately, that it's a lousy screenplay, but one which is nonetheless well acted and directed. The movie also has an annoying habit of flicking back and forth through time...sometimes this gimmic can work, but here it doesn't. There never seems to be any good reason for it. The story could have been told better with a more linear narrative.

Lastly, on the off chance anyone thinks this is a "war" movie (I think some previews teasingly hint at it)...it's not. Not a single Wehrmacht soldier shows up in the whole film. The "war" aspect of the film involves British soldiers waiting on the beach at Dunkirk, getting drunk. Remarkably even the Luftwaffe never seems to show up.

So, if the racks at Blockbuster are really thin this week, this movie might do in a clinch. But you'll have to be willing to sit through a movie with significant plot holes and disjointed narrative.

Since I started seeing the trailers of this movie i was curious about the movie. When it came out on DVD i didn't by it or rent it, but one of my friends bought it and i borrowed it from them and surprised that i enjoyed a love story, especially since I'm a guy, but the heart ache and not ending with a happy ending, plus the war scenes being brutally honest pry made it that much better for me, but i was amazed that i was feeling for the characters, and wishing that the two lovers would be together. A movie not for everyone but i loved it that i had to buy the book to see how closely they got the movie, i defiantly recommend if your a guy and your girlfriend wants to watch a love story, you the guy will get something out of it too.