the blog of nathan loding

Atone­ment (2007)
Star­ring: Kiera Knight­ley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan, and Vanessa Red­grave
Directed by: Joe Wright
Writ­ten by: Christo­pher Hamp­ton, based on the novel by Ian McE­wan
Rated: R
Rat­ing: **** (four stars out of five)

Atone­ment is a movie not eas­ily for­got, for more than just a few rea­sons. The cin­e­matog­ra­phy is absolutely gor­geous (more on that later). The act­ing is nigh on per­fect. The direc­tion is flaw­less. But it’s the story, the writ­ing, that is the real star of this film.

I will admit that I have not read McEwan’s novel even though it’s been rec­om­mended to me count­less times. After see­ing this film, I will also admit that it’s been added to my read­ing list. I can there­fore not judge how well the novel trans­lated onto the screen. I can only make assump­tions based on how well the adap­tion is, and my assump­tion is that is ridicu­lously well done.

Aside from the col­or­ful and sump­tu­ous cin­e­matog­ra­phy, the pac­ing of this film is per­fect. With the stamp­ing of each let­ter on a type­writer, the story gains momen­tum in a truly unfor­get­table way. The music moves to the tap­ping of the keys, the scenes cut and drive for­ward with each typed let­ter. The use of the type­writer works per­fectly with the mate­r­ial pre­sented in the film.

We open on a young Briony Tallis, typ­ing away fran­ti­cally on her type­writer, fin­ish­ing her lat­est mas­ter­piece. It’s a play to be per­formed for her older brother Leon when he arrives to the Eng­lish manse in which she lives with her wealthy fam­ily. What fol­lows after­wards care­fully builds to Briony cry­ing wolf. We meet Paul Mar­shall, Leon’s friend, whom we imme­di­ately dis­cover has a dark secret. We meet Briony’s older sis­ter Cecilia (Knight­ley). Knight­ley plays her with ease, show­ing a matu­rity she hasn’t had a chance to show in her career yet. We also meet Rob­bie Turner (McAvoy), the Tallis’ gar­dener who’s edu­ca­tion has been paid for by Briony’s father.

Most impor­tantly, we see Cecilia and Rob­bie together, and the sex­ual ten­sion and mutual attrac­tion is imme­di­ately appar­ent. They meet at the foun­tain in a scene full of sex­u­al­ity. It is this scene that Briony wit­nesses from her bed­room win­dow. It is this scene of attrac­tion between two young lovers that Briony mis­un­der­stands — or rather, can’t under­stand because she is so young. This per­fectly played and directed scene becomes the cen­ter­piece for the rest of the film.

That night, she stum­bles upon Rob­bie and Cecilia in the heat of pas­sion. By the end, Rob­bie is in prison by Briony’s word, as incor­rect as her word may be.

Sev­eral long years later, Rob­bie is try­ing to make his way through war-torn France back to the beach to be evac­u­ated back to Eng­land. Cecilia has moved into a small apart­ment and is work­ing as a nurse. Briony, who now under­stands exactly what she did, has begun work­ing at a mil­i­tary hos­pi­tal as a nurse as well, try­ing her best to pay penance for what she’s done.

The film’s end­ing mon­logue, deliv­ered by Vanessa Red­grave, reveals the true mean­ing of the title, and just how harm­ful a sin­gle lie can be.

The Oscar’s are, unfor­tu­nately, going to largely look over this film. I hate say­ing this about such an amaz­ing and beau­ti­ful film, but it’s the weak­est con­tender amongst the Best Pic­ture nom­i­nees. The only award I think it will bring home at the end of the day is Best Cin­e­matog­ra­phy. The scene at the beach of Dunkirk, a 5 1/2 minute mir­a­cle of a shot, is sim­ply one of the most amaz­ing shots I’ve ever seen. It deserves the award for that scene alone.