I went to see a preview of this the other night (I think it won't be released in the US until December 2007), replete with huge guys from Universal Studios warning everyone not to record the movie. With free popcorn and coke (and a DVD of Pride & Prejudice), the night was set. What though of the film? I thought you might ask that, so I wrote this review - thoughtful, eh?

Two of Britain's hottest screen starlets, Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, lead the cast of this interesting film based on the best-selling book by Ian McEwan. Atonement is the story of a best-selling authoress, Brioney Tallis (played by Saorise Ronan at age 13 and Romola Garai at age 18), who as a young child sees things that she struggles to understand or simply interprets completely. At one stage this brings enormous tragedy to those around her, particularly Robbie Turner (McAvoy) and her older sister, Cecilia (Knightley). This results in a complete estrangement from her sister and Turner, Cecilia's lover, ends up imprisoned and later fighting in the second world war.

The story starts off pretty slowly and both actresses who play Brioney (in fact there is also a third, much older Brioney played by Vanessa Redgrave near the end) tend to spend a lot of time staring blankly at the window or out of it. With visitors in the house and strange events unfolding, Brioney fails to grasp the interplay of the adults around her. Despite the slow pace you do have to pay attention as the movie flits back and forth in time a bit. The photography is really nicely done and just about every technique in the book is used – sometimes it seems a little over the top (as with the myriad screen transitions in the 2004 movie Hulk), but overall the different camera angles etc were well used. The music is moody and there are some beautiful segments, including the creative use of typewriter sounds blending into it, but overall I found the music far too repetitive. Knightley's character is rather repugnant at first, and in fact very few of the characters have any real redeeming features – at first. The interesting thing about the movie is, and this also helps to explain why it gets better as it goes on after a rather uninvolving beginning, because as time goes on you start to see the good qualities of the people involved. In the case of Brioney it's her repentance over the wrong she has done; with Cecilia it's the loyalty she shows to her lover proved over time. It's easy to feel sorry for Robbie but we don't really get to know him until later in the film.

There is a bit of objectionable (at least to some) content in the film in the form of language, gruesome war scenes, and a bit of sexuality. (The film is rated R in the US and 15 in the UK.) It's one of those films where almost everything that could be objectionable is clumped together in about 3 short scenes. With or without those bits, Atonement turns out to be an incredibly powerful human story, focusing in on one of the three main characters in turn, then shifting perspective. The sometimes big jumps in time aren't too hard to follow, and in the same way as The Constant Gardener did, it failed to draw me in for the first part of the film, started to get me involved in the middle, and had me well and truly hooked by the end. The ending of this film wasn't as shocking or amazing as that film's was, but it still wasn't quite what I expected. It's not a film I would whole-heartedly recommend, but for those interested in a compelling character study, who are willing to wade through the slow start and who can overlook the questionable bits, will be rewarded with a rather unusual but very compelling drama.

Official website: http://www.atonementthemovie.co.uk/site/site.html

Runtime: 2 hours 10 minutes

Links

Director Joe Wright has of course worked with Keira Knightley before - see Pride and Prejudice

Other Keira Knightley films:

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man‘s Chest

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Bend It Like Beckham

Other James McAvoy films:

Becoming Jane

Recommended: Yes

Movie Mood: Serious Movie
Viewing Method: Sneak Preview at My Local Theater
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.