Directed by:
Joe WrightScreenplay:
Christopher HamptonCinematography:
Seamus McGarveyComposer:
Dario MarianelliCast:
James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Romola Garai, Saoirse Ronan, Vanessa Redgrave, Brenda Blethyn, Juno Temple, Benedict Cumberbatch, Patrick Kennedy (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching Cecilia is their housekeeper's son Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), a childhood friend who, along with Briony's sister, has recently graduated from Cambridge. By the end of that day the lives of all three will have been changed forever. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had never before dared to approach and will have become victims of the younger girl's scheming imagination, and Briony will have committed a dreadful crime, the guilt for which will colour her entire life. (Universal Pictures UK)
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Romantic films are certainly not the kind I look for, but I have nothing about having an occasional look at genres that are not my favourite and today I decided to watch the best rated romance of 2007, Atonement. The result is that for most of the runtime I was bored and frustrated, hoping for the end. The direction is brilliant, the film has lots of gorgeous visuals, but it didn’t have much of an effect on me. But then the story jumps to the present and the end shattered me. The tempers suddenly flare and I have to say that I don’t regret putting on this film. 70%
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It's all point-of-view shots, things are made subjective, and it has a fragmented narrative, hypothesis, flashbacks, and flash-forwards (maybe even front-flashes, but I'm not going to segment that for you)... But hell with all that. When in the end it's all washed away by the perfection of Vanessa Redgrave's performance, I even end up believing it's 1935 given Keira Knightley’s performance.
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Atonement is wonderfully suited for broadcast on TV channels that feature love stories. That tragic romance of unfulfilled love, fateful encounters, desire, passion, misunderstandings, sacrifices, hope, and disappointments. The producer spared no expense, and the director tried to make it a sublime visual feast with an artistic touch. But there's a catch. Atonement doesn't work for me. It's overly ambitious, and emotionally missed the mark with me. The acclaimed long shots rather bore me, and I can only appreciate the well-crafted beach scene at Dankers, where the surrounded defeated army tries to forget about the future. When looking at Keira Knightley's emaciated figure, I realized that she resembles more of a medical diagnosis than an actress. This time, I'll take the dissident position in my review... Overall impression: 45%.
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The category of believability was actually key for me. Atonement contains scenes that I would call captivating without hesitating. Those few minutes of war scenes are among the best and most cinematic choices I've ever seen on the subject. Without a single shot fired, with the extraordinary weight on the expressive power of images, without embellishment, without pathetic words that one would certainly find in an American production... In a refined form, the film is simply able to engage and draw one into the plot, offering first-class visual enjoyment of the story. The film is able to arouse sympathy thanks to well-acted characters. The only, but fundamental failure of Wright's melodrama is, from my point of view, the story, which, with its schematic nature, suffocated everything civil and literally pushed me in front of it, preventing me from fully entering the story, identifying with it and sympathizing with it. At the end, which upgrades everything to a tragic crescendo, I was only watching the film with the non-participation of the observer, who rejects the offered catharsis. This is undoubtedly a strong moment, in which, it turns out, the only real atonement of Briony is the lingering belief in the cleansing power of fabrication, and I experienced it with my head rather than my heart. From my point of view, Wright's film suffered the most from verbosity and unnecessary strumming of emotions, whereas it would have been enough to let the film speak through its specific means and not dictate a high level of literacy and sweet-soured phrases (however sympathetic they are to me, these phrases refer more to classical English literature than to the Hollywood tradition). This is, of course, my personal problem, but I think there are a few of us who are unaffected by the film. And that is not a coincidence. [6.5/10]
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Oddly enough, I find Atonement a bit more interesting plot-wise than Pride and Prejudice. The costumes and atmosphere generally suit me. I like the appropriate seriousness of the situation. Overall, I feel like the film means something and carries an idea. The cast is good, although Keira doesn't stand out as much as I think she should. But yes, a well-made film that I'll happily watch a few more times. 4 stars.
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Gallery (53)
Photo © Working Title Films
![Atonement - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/162/347/162347001_88c014.jpg)
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