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All Movie Info
Starring:
Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Romola Garai, Saoirse Ronan, Brenda Blethyn, Vanessa Redgrave, Juno Temple, Nonso Anozie, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michelle Duncan, Daniel Mays, Gina McKee, Anthony Minghella, Jeremie Renier, Richard Waller, Harriet Walter, Alfie Allen, Paul Henderson, Thomas Rooke, Andrew Appleyard, Jamie Beamish, Robert Alan Bishop, Vivienne Gibbs, Richard Glaves, Jack Harcourt, Patrick Kennedy, Thomas Rooke, Richard Sutton, Charlie von Simson, Felix von Simson, Ben Harcourt
Directed By:
Joe Wright
Written By:
Christopher Hampton
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Atonement (2007)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
December 13th, 2007
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'Atonement' is sort of like the darker side of Jane Austen, a love story punctuated by tragedy and deceit. Director Joe Wright and Keira Knightley teamed up before on Pride and Prejudice, so they know Austen's work, yet this time they produce an adaptation of a novel by Ian McEwan. Knightley is Cecilia Tallis. She lives with her aristocratic family in an English countryside estate. There, she is largely oblivious to what is happening on the European mainland. It is 1935, and WWII is looming the distance, as tensions build between Nazi Germany and its neighbors. Cecilia has fallen in love with Robbie (McAvoy), the son of a servant, a bright and ambitious lad who yearns to rise above his social class, which makes a legitimate romance with Cecilia all but impossible. Briony (Ronan), Cecilia's younger sister, notices their blossoming relationship. She has a crush on Robbie, so she is, on the one hand, jealous that Cecilia has nabbed him, and that he is focused on Cecilia and thus not interested in her. But, there is also another motive for her decision to intervene in their affairs; she believes that she must protect Cecilia from Robbie, whom she feels may be some kind of lecherous seducer. These emotions are coupled with Briony's own immaturity and inexperience, which causes her to misunderstand what she witnesses quite grotesquely. There is a rape. Briony says she knows who the culprit is, and this falsity essentially destroys, or drastically alters, three lives, including Briony's. Fast forward to a few years later, when Robbie is a soldier, and Cecilia and Briony are both nurses.
All of them will be reunited with one another, this is inevitable, and so the drama unfolds. Robbie is part of the army that is evacuated at Dunkirk, and the camera swoops over the landscape to give us some idea of the scale of the famous evacuation, which has been historically romanticized, made out to be well-organized, when it was really anything but. At this stage, Briony is played by Romola Garai, she is 18, and still haunted by what she has done. Then, we see her as an old woman, played by Vanessa Redgrave, with decades of regret and guilt looming over her. So, in essence, this is very much Briony's movie, and the trio of actresses that portray her at different ages are all wonderful, especially Redgrave, who gets the least screen time, but leaves the most biggest impression. Ronan is more effective than Garai, but we have more sympathy for the latter than the former. Ronan's Briony acts selfishly and impulsively, and her decisions have serious consequences, and it takes her a while to realize just how serious they are. Ronan and Garai are made to look as much alike as is possible, but such pains are not taken with Redgrave, but when you have someone of her caliber in your movie, it doesn't really matter. Knightley is beautiful, but Cecilia is not quite as central to the plot as Briony, nor is she even as important, it would seem, as Robbie, played marvelously by James McAvoy. McAvoy went from Mr Tumnus in Narnia to starring opposite Forrest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland, and now gets a chance to really shine, in a great performance, maybe his best to date.
The second half of the movie is not quite as compelling or engaging as the first, but this is a fairly minor complaint. One nice touch is the way that the film presents certain scenes from Briony's perspective, so we know exactly what she saw, or thinks she saw, and then shows it from a more neutral and objective angle, more or less, what actually happened, and we can see that Briony's version of things is not that accurate. Such a structure may remind one of Rashomon, but 'Atonement' offers fewer alternative perspectives than the Kurosawa classic. The cinematography is stunning, and the music is superb. Overall, a triumph. I think it is one of the year's best films.
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