Movie Review

Atonement

Whenever I see a movie title like "Atonement," "Pride and Prejudice," or "Bereavement," I'm instantly drawn to the conclusion that the movie will be a dry, melodramatic bore. It's for this reason that I wanted to skip "Atonement" altogether, but the awards buzz around it got me hooked and now here I am, writing a review about this movie and saying that it's not nearly as painful as I was expecting. Only it also does not have the heart to become the great film it probably could have been.

It begins in 1935 at the mansion of the Tallis family. Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) is the youngest child, a 13 year old fledgling playwright with a wild imagination and a nose that she loves to stick in other peoples' business. Her older sister is Cecilia (Keira Knightley), a beautiful girl who happens to spend a lot of time with the housekeeper's son, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy). Robbie loves Cecilia and hopes that she feels the same way, but Briony loves Robbie and will do anything to prevent the love between them. And so when her cousin is raped one night outside, she manages to pin the crime on Robbie. Robbie is arrested and given the choice of jail or fighting in the upcoming war. He chooses the war. As the battle rages on, Robbie and Cecilia, who is now a nurse, continue to meet but know that they can never have the love they want until his name is cleared.

"Atonement" is all about how one lie can rip lives apart. It's haunting at times, especially in the last half hour where it focuses on Briony's grief. It begins well too, heating up the relationship between Robbie and Cecilia while establishing just how naive and cold a character Briony can be. Just once Robbie is arrested and sentenced to war, the movie starts to feel like an empty romance novel. The movie goes in three separate directions, first showing us how the lie has effected Robbie, then Cecilia, and then Briony, just the Robbie and Cecillia stories feel weak. He longs to be with her, she longs to be with him, they're both young, attractive, and in the middle of a war, but there is no substance above that standard chick-lit type plotting. Nothing happens to them through their journeys that really makes us care. This is Briony's movie and once the movie switches to her grappling with the outcome of her lie, the movie finally takes on a compelling dimension. Until that point, there isn't much to do other than look at the set and costume design, which is richly detailed and absolutely lovely. There is a roving shot later on in the film on the beach of Dunkirk where soldiers sing, enjoy each other's company, and lay dead or wounded amid the destruction caused by the war as they wait to be evacuated. It's by far one of the best looking scenes I've seen all year.

The acting is ok. McAvoy walks around like a man who's been wronged. Knightley gives her moodiest performance ever. Saoirse Ronan is so somber it's creepy, as is Romola Garai later on in the film as the older Briony. One of the reasons I hate movies with titles like this is that the acting feels so one-note and serious, like nobody in it has ever had a happy day in their entire lives. That may be the reason why the romance just didn't work for me; I'm into people with a sense of humor. As I said when I started this review, maybe movies like "Atonement" just aren't for me. Maybe I missed some key element in the Robbie, Cecilia stories that makes an audience want them to get through their problems and wind up together in the end. Just I didn't see that and so "Atonement" is really just a so-so flick for me.

Craig's Grade: C+

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%