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Almost Epic There is much about Atonement that is strikingly beautiful. From the idyllic first scenes of what must have seemed a magical England to the blasted panoramas of war torn France the film is lovingly and painstakingly rendered. Joe Wright, the director of 2005's Pride and Prejudice has developed a knack for re-creating a certain dream England has of itself. In the early pastoral phase of the movie the screen practically beats with the love between Cecilia Tallis(Keira Knightley) and Robbie Turner(James McAvoy), the son of the groundskeeper for Cecilia's family. The camera loves Cecilia and Robbie, capturing them at their most beautiful, at the height of their living, when their newly discovered passion for each other is the best and the most real thing about them. The countryside is hazy, golden-hued, like memory. The chemistry between Knightley and McAvoy is intoxicating. An early scene at a fountain feels charged with erotic energy in a way we rarely see in movies anymore and later, when Robbie (James McAvoy) and Cecilia (Keira Knightley) discover who they are for each other verbally and physically it is a dynamically sensual moment that feels natural, powerful. This wonderful scene feels like a surprise, a gift for the audience. This gift is turned in on itself and made all the more painful when a single moment of adult depravity and criminal innocence tears this world apart and leaves it broken and bleeding on the shores of Dunkirk. The brutal transformation is foreshadowed by the ominous and omniscient typewriter of Cecilia's little sister, Briony (Saoirse Ronan), a precocious thirteen-year old. Briony is a tiny storm of pent up energy. Her feverish imagination and raging hormones lead to a cataclysmic mistake that changes her life and the lives of Robbie and Cecilia forever. The exact nature of forever is the subject of the film. Wright skips back and forth between time and points of view. What is real and what is not, the nature of truth and the role of the artist in regards to that truth are all questions that come into play as the story unfolds. Wright is a skilled and talented director. There are moments of directorial delight throughout the movie but also moments of becoming too cute, when the director's hand is felt too heavily and the audience is taken out of the film. An already famous five and a half minute tracking shot feels unnecessarily showy, technical brilliance drawing attention to itself right when the film can afford it the least. Likewise, the episodic structure of the film is at times wonderful -- illuminating and deepening the themes of the movie and at other times exasperating -- finally, in the end, leaving the viewer to feel cheated, lied to. This is a fatal flaw because everything that happens before-hand depends on this moment working and when it doesn't the film fails, making for a finally unsatisfying experience. James McAvoy is an actor of precise economy. His Robbie is a finely tuned creation. Early in the movie McAvoy brings you inside Robbie's skin with a few light strokes and never falters. Later, when found in the midst of war we understand more of what has happened because we understand Robbie. Keira Knightley, though early on she does some of her finest work, when the movie shifts locales she can't shift with it and the grand nature of the romance suffers for it. This kind of story calls for an epic charisma Knightley simply does not have. Saoirse Ronan, on the other hand, is a force of nature. From her opening moments the viewer is bombarded with the intensity of Briony's need, it is there in her eyes and the way she holds her body. Ronan is a young actor to be reckoned with. We follow her Briony through her life: first as the dangerous child and then as a young nurse during the war and finally, coming to the close of her life in her seventies. The successive Brionys are played by Romola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave. Garai might have had more of an impact if she hadn't been preceded by Ronan but her work is solid enough. The scene she has with a dying French soldier is the most moving in the film. But Redgrave is very much the remains of what became of the thirteen-year-old-house-on-fire. Her chilling performance reveals the monstrous ego of Briony that despite claims to the contrary, never quite learned her lesson. In the end however, though there are flashes of brilliance, Atonement finds itself struggling mightily to reach something it can never achieve because it is too aware of itself to go there. Epic romance can not be approximated -- it has to be discovered. Manufacturing it ultimately unravels its magic. email this review to a friend
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Feb 28, 2008 5:48 PM