1001. Atonement (2007)

Running Time: 123 minutes
Directed By: Joe Wright
Written By: Christopher Hampton
Main Cast: James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave
Click here to view the trailer

BOOK END

Oh, how I used to dream of the day when I'd be writing this review. Of course, those were the days when I was moving through the book chronologically and when writing this review would have signified the end of my journey. In hindsight, I'm kind of glad I started moving through the book randomly, because this would not have been a good note to end on.

Our film is set in England and focuses in on the Tallis Family, particularly 13-year-old Briony Tallis (Ronan) and her older sister Cecilia (Knightley). Briony is an aspiring writer and spends her days clacking away at the typewriter, letting her imagination spin tales. The Tallis Family is quite wealthy and employs many servants. One of the servants has a son named Robbie (McAvoy), a man of Cecilia's age, who spends his free time lusting after Cecilia, although she doesn't know it and at first, doesn't seem to share his feelings. However, that all changes when the two have an awkward, yet sexually tense encounter near a fountain. Briony witnesses the encounter and is confused by what she sees - her sister Cecilia climbing out of the fountain in her slip, exposing her bare, wet body to Robbie. Later, Robbie writes a letter to Cecilia, apologizing for the awkward encounter, but also slips in a bit of his fantasies, using a particular word (if you'd like to know what the word is, then I'll Catch U Next Tuesday). He hands the letter of to Briony to deliver to Cecilia and of course, she reads it, seeing the word and having her entire opinion of Robbie, a boy whom she did have a crush on, go south. Later, Briony witnesses Cecilia and Robbie having intercourse and coupled with the dreaded word she saw, ends up fingering Robbie in the rape of her 15-year-old cousin, despite the fact that it isn't true. Robbie is sent to prison and later, to war.

SPOILER ALERT!

So, to clarify, no, this would not have been a good film to end my journey with, but is it terrible? Not at all. Is it hard to see why "No Country for Old Men" beat it to capture the Best Picture Oscar back in 2007? Not at all. In fact, I'd even say that "Juno", which was also nominated that year, was better than this. But I'm straying away from my original point, which is, "Atonement" is not a particularly bad film. It's just something that doesn't necessarily appeal to yours truly. "Atonement" reminded me of a glorified Lifetime movie or something you'd picture Nicholas Sparks penning. It had high points, but ultimately it was the same old love story we've seen a million times, a story about a love that isn't allowed to flourish, about a love that is kept separated. The whole "I'll wait for you while you go to war" scenario has been done to death and even though "Atonement" put a more clever spin on it, it was still the same present, wrapped in shinier paper.


But, man was that paper shiny! What I'm getting at is that "Atonement" looked brilliant. That image of a ferris wheel spinning at Dunkirk beach, while soldiers lie dying was something I won't soon forget. Many images in "Atonement" deserved to be captured and framed and gawked at forever: Robbie in full soldier regalia walking through a field of pink flowers, Briony power walking through an archway constructed of greenery, Keira Knightley and her green dress...need I say more? On top of the photography, I also love the ending. I loved how it was both sad and happy and how it gave the viewer the choice to leave the film believing the real story or the story that Briony wrote. The film ends with Robbie and Cecilia walking on a beach, clearly in love. In reality, we know that Cecilia and Robbie never reunited because they both perished before that could happen. It was actually a brilliant ending to an average film.

Throughout the film, we see themes of jealousy (did Briony finger Robbie because of what she read and saw or because she was jealous of Cecilia and didn't want to see Robbie love another woman?) and the difference that perspective makes. From Briony's window, she had no idea why Cecilia suddenly jumped into the fountain; all she knew was that Cecilia had exposed herself to a young boy. Also, from Briony's perspective, she saw her sister being ravaged by this boy, however, she could not see the pure love that existed between the two, during their moment of passion. The film also speaks about the way we see things from different ages and how at different points in our lives we begin to see right and wrong more clearly. But, the underlying fact is that it came off to me as just another, sappy love story...clever, but cliche.

RATING: 7/10  Okay, so I talked myself into rating it higher than I intended, as I only intended to give it a '6.5'. I'll let it stew for a few more days and we'll discuss it again at recap time, next week.

MOVIES WATCHED: 432
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 569


April 25, 2012  10:32pm