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Atonement (2007)

Director: Joe Wright

Critics' rating

Average user rating

22 reviews

Synopsis

Adapted from Ian McEwan's prizewinning novel, Atonement opens in 1935 on a British country estate, where Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley) and her sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan, and later Romola Garai) live along with Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), a servant’s son. After witnessing something she doesn't understand, Briony makes some unfounded accusations; the fallout from those charges extends through WWII and beyond.

Movie review

From Time Out New York

The hat trick of Ian McEwan’s 2001 novel, Atonement, was spinning a typical English country-estate melodrama while simultaneously deconstructing trad Brit lit and equating the writing process with divine providence. Successfully translating these ideas to the screen, however, seemed as likely as Heathcliff coming to a happy ending. Which makes Joe Wright’s big-screen version all the more impressive: He’s produced a gripping, romantic yarn without sacrificing the source’s meta-examination of fiction’s power. Not even the director’s swooning take on Pride & Prejudice (2005) could have prepared folks for this.

Clacking endlessly at her typewriter, 13-year-old Briony (Ronan) fancies herself a budding Brontë. After she spies her sister (Knightley) and a servant’s son (McAvoy) engaged in brief encounters, her hyperactive imagination paves the way for tragedy. Years pass, WWII breaks out and the lovers vow to reunite; the now-older Briony (Garai) pays penance as a nurse. There’s a secret that’s better discovered than disclosed, and the key misstep in Wright’s doggedly anti–Merchant Ivory adaptation is that, unlike the book, it doesn’t play up the third act enough to make the climactic revelation more jaw-dropping.

Yet Atonement’s extraordinary qualities outweigh any quibbles. Both Knightley and McAvoy finally justify the ink spilled declaring them movie stars, and even virtuosic flourishes like Wright’s Dunkirk-by-Bosch steadicam shot avoid devolving into flashy self-indulgence. The film balances its intimate moments and epic gestures so beautifully that you’d think this stellar adaptation was single-handedly repenting for the rest of the season’s overblown, empty Oscar bait.

Author: David Fear

Time Out New York Issue 636: December 6-12, 2007

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User reviews of this film

Jon Long said...

Posted on May 20 2008 16:08 Hugely disappointing, ahallow chick flick. Truly a case of the Emperor's New Clothes - has everyone been cowed by McEwan and Hampton's literary reputations? The plot is a soft focus story of thwarted romance whiich badly neglects the real dramatic material in the class tension between Robbie and the aristo family that adopts and betrays him. As for the Dunkiirk scene - quiite cringemakig theatirality from the narrow field of vision packed with expensive props to the awful cor bliimey cockney stereotype squaddie. Rarely can such a long and elaborate tracking shot have failed to create anything more than an impression of a flat packed stage set. Liked the literary tricksiness of Vanessa Redgrave's revelation at the end, but apart from that this film has very little going on up top. Gosford Park it ain't.

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Amelia said...

Posted on Mar 15 2008 21:32 I am a year 11 student who's task is to write a review on this film for my drama studies class and I thank all of you for giving me some different ways to look at the film. Personally, I loved this movie from the very start. So cleverly constructed with the flash backs from different point of veiws and all stoping and starting. The tension was so great it just gave such a fantastic atmosphere. Whoever was the sound designer of this film deserves a gold star as this was what I believed to tie the movie altogether, giving that fantastic feeling at the end of the film. Touching, heartbreaking, tourchering and somewhat humerous in certain places, Atonement gets full marks from me!

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Nancy said...

Posted on Jan 28 2008 18:41 As someone with a Christian upbringing, (now lapsed,) I do think there were quite a few underlying allusions to religious themes in the movie production - allusions, not literal interpretations. It is most unlikely that the book had an overt religious theme, though the title word is certainly loaded in a Christian sense
The picture above the typewriter in the opening scene was actually someone praying at a bedside..... and the animals maybe heading to the ark, very tentative allusions.
For the rest, to follow the clues, you have (loosley) to think of Robbie as, not JC, but nevertheless :
- the "crucified" - injustice to him - backed up by the "bleeding heart" or wound to chest
- the "saviour" - the scene rescuing Briony from the water (baptisim - saved by Christ)
- the absolver - when he washes the blood from his hands in the water at the fountain, after the jar broke (this is a loose reference to a biblical incident in which he washes blood from his hands in a sort of pre-emptive forgiveness)
- the master - scene near the end of his life near the beach, when he hallucinates that his mother is washing his feet. (this is perhaps one of the most deliberate scenes and quite pointless unless it is making a "religious" point) (I didn't pick it the first viewing)
Briony, particularly in the latter scenes becomes almost nun-like (bride of Christ) complete with black nursing cape and headgear looking less like a nurse and much like a bride. (Chaste by choice) (I didn't pick this one the first time, but it was very obvious in the second viewing.
In the "arrest" scene, she is sent inside, but disappears in an etherial light up the stairs.
She then watches the scene looking from a window, beside which there is a stained glass window which looks just like the face on the Turin shroud. That window is seen again from the inside and the stained glass has a woman's face and a latin inscription which I didn't grasp, but suspect would have significance if translated.
I think the young Briony playing in the grotto is a sort of garden of eden imagery - the place innocence and then of "the sin" involving her cousin (the red headed fellow was not identifiable at the discovery (by the audience) but only in the remembered scene at the time of the wedding of the two) The end of innocence and expulsion from the garden of eden, or innocence.
I don't know how to interpret C except that the shape of the scene of her seduction was cross-like, as was her death floating in the water.
The last scene ... the promised land? or heaven - as we know they are both really dead?
There was some play on "the light"
- Briony drawn to and then initially blinded by the light in the Library before she saw the seduction
- All the torches that went out seeking the twins shone as a cross of light (but this might be what torches do when photographed - I was looking for that theme by then

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Jack said...

Posted on Jan 10 2008 00:17 I just saw it. Very dull and dragged out scenes that were so boring. The Dunkirk scene seemed too staged and drawn out. The scenes and story seemed fragmented. I'm really was disappointed. No comparison to English Patient or Room With a View or Gosford Park or even Wright's P&P was much better than this fodder. I feel sorry for the Wright. What happened in the editing room Mr Wright? Oh I forgot you didn't even edit the film! The 13 year old Briony was the best actress in the film. I saw nothing new from Knightly in this. Better luck next time old chap!

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Katie said...

Posted on Nov 14 2007 15:25 words can't actually describe the sheer beauty and heart breaking quality of this film, I was hooked. also a lot easier to understand than the book!

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Dori said...

Posted on Nov 02 2007 08:13 Superb. We have all been to films which tell a period story and especially WWII stories. But to be able to produce such a scene as de Dankirk beach scene or the restaurant scene, you really need something special. Acting is all about the little things; the moves, the looks, the sounds; the cast has mastered these as only British cinema has been able to provide throughout the years. Simply magnificant.

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Ian Williams said...

Posted on Oct 22 2007 01:41 What bothered me about this film is the assumption that viewers will understand the relationship between the major characters and what is actually going on prior to Robbie being arrested. Sure, these scenes are beautifully shot and atmospheric, but as a partly deaf and older cinema goer, I felt confused. It's a form of snobbery to write a high culture script for a low culture medium.

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Aalia said...

Posted on Oct 11 2007 05:57 Amazing film, minus Keira's constant pout, had tears in my eyes by the end - a beauty to behold!

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tim said...

Posted on Sep 23 2007 16:28 Having read the book, I doubted any film could honestly depict McEwan's exploration of the responsibilities in creating a work of fiction and still tell a cinematic tale. I think the brilliant use of sound, starting with the distant taps of a typewriter coming out of the opening darkness, convey this sense of the creative process. All the following sounds, the trapped bee, the dripping taps, the snapping electrics on the Underground, act as a 'leitmotif' for this, elegantly presaging the elderly Briony's moving speech at the close. This may be glossy, prestige cinema, but it's also thoughtful, elegant, and, especially in that incredible tracking shot at Dunkirk, superbly constructed cinema.

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Vincent Mayo said...

Posted on Sep 17 2007 15:35 Stunning moving perfect for all audiences who want to reach upward in their cinema choices. The scriptwriter Christopher Hampton deserves an Oscar for Best Adaptation. Director Joe Wright is perhaps too clever with tricks but I reccommend too all movie goers. Vanessa Redgrave is touching in the surprise ending.

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mags said...

Posted on Sep 14 2007 18:19 I was captivated by this beautifully made film, as was the rest of the audience in the cinema, who at the end, when the credits rolled, just sat spellbound and didn't move. I loved James McEvoy in 'Becoming Jane' , but thought him even better in this film; the emotion he is able to portray in his face is so powerful and convincing, without being over done. Haven't read the book but am certainly going to now. One not too be missed.

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Hannah said...

Posted on Sep 14 2007 16:28 Has gone directly into my top ten favorite films of all time.Moving but never mawkish, visually stunning immaculately cast. I loved the book and the film did not let me down. Does a film have to be 'edgey' to win Oscars now? We shall see.

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LauraB said...

Posted on Sep 13 2007 06:52 This film is still haunting me. It isn't perfect by any means, but it is lovingly and beautifully handled even if some shots are a little too self-aware. James McAvoy is heartbreaking and worthy of an Oscar; Romola Garai restrained compared to Keira Knightley who just sticks out her jaw and hisses poshly as in all her other films. As someone who's read and re-read the book I felt slightly distanced from the story because I knew the ending but I'm still thinking about certain beautiful shots. The Dunkirk scene in particular is very well done. Do go and see it. It may be flawed, but dull it is most certainly not.

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caroline said...

Posted on Sep 12 2007 06:11 The comment you type in this box will appear on the sitE
The book is great, and the film faithful to it. The earlier scenes are tight and compellingly filmed, in startling contrast to the war scenes which convey the horror and strain on Robbie and all involved on the beach. Felt Redgrave's little speech of explanation was unimaginative. In the book, she returns to the house where all is revealed. Why change it? Generally a striking film.

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Si said...

Posted on Sep 12 2007 05:23 How one can call this a semi-failure is beyond me, as questioning the artistic integrity of the Dunkirk carnage shot. I thought this to be a truly beautiful and engaging film. I do take issue with the casting of Kiera Knightley though, she really gets on my last nerve.

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