Atonement (2007)
Directed by Joe Wright

Film Review

Director Joe Wright followed up his acclaimed Pride and Prejudice (2005) with a second inspired literary adaptation, that of Ian McEwan's bestselling 2001 novel Atonement.  A heartwrenching tale of guilt, loss and redemption, McEwan's story is beautifully visualised by Wright, in a way that vividly evokes the era in which it is set.  James McAvoy and Keira Knightley are at their best as the ill-fated lovers who are separated by the unintentionally cruel machinations of a teenager, portrayed with arresting charm by 13 year old Saoirse Ronan.  This elegantly crafted, deeply moving film was both a critical and commercial success, and was nominated for seven Oscars in 2008, although it only took the award in the Best Score category (Ronan was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress).

The film retains the ingenious narrative structure of the original novel, and adopts a fairly conventional approach that is punctuated by some moments of high artistry.  The most visually striking sequence comes at the film's mid-point, an ambitiously long tracking shot depicting the Dunkirk evacuation.  This sequence makes a stunning contrast with what precedes it, a minimalist drama set in the narrow confines of a country house. The film suddenly opens up and shows that the characters we have met so far are mere specks of dust in a much bigger human drama being played out on the world stage.  After this sudden outwards zoom, we are taken back in again, and somehow the drama has even greater immediacy - the sense of loss and remorse that are slowly accumulating becomes that much more acute. It has an even greater impact than Henri Verneuil's harrowing depiction of the Dunkirk evacuation in his 1964 film Week-end à Zuydcoote.

It is a shame that not all of the film's artistry hits the mark, and some of it feels downright self-indulgent.  A case in point is the sequence near the end of the film depicting the flooding of Balham tube station.  Although it is convincingly rendered and has a certain poetry about it, this sequence takes away far more than it adds, an unnecessary spectacle of cinematic bravado when what is really needed is a quieter moment of reflection.   Too many filmmakers nowadays feel it is necessary to show us absolutely everything, whereas understatement, allowing the specator's imagination to do some of the work, can be more effective.  Apart from one or two lapses into self-consciousness artiness, Wright's mise-en-scène is generally hard to fault and more than does justice to McEwan's utterly compulsive novel.  Excelling on so many fronts (the scripting, acting and photography are all of the highest calibre), Atonement could hardly fail to be one of the most impressive British film dramas in recent years.

Film Synopsis

England, in the summer of 1935.  Briony Tallis is a 13-year-old girl with an overactive imagination who lives in a large country house with her older sister Cecilia.  Briony has a crush on the housekeeper's son Robbie Turner and is shocked when she sees him and Cecilia making love in the library.  When, that same evening, Briony witnesses her cousin Lola being raped by a man, she incriminates Robbie and he is arrested.  Four years later, Robbie is in France, a serving solider in the British army.  He still corresponds with Cecilia and looks forward to the day when he will finally be reunited with her.  Meanwhile, Cecilia and Briony have enlisted as nurses to treat the war-wounded at a hospital in London.   Briony, now 18, has come to realise the implications of her childhood deception and is desperate to redeem herself.  But Cecilia has no wish to see her again...