With seven Golden Globe nominations leading the pack of films, this grand adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel is on the road to Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress and possibly Best Actor. Surprisingly, this romance is more intellectual than emotional, and often quite funny. The core theme is regret and how we react to it. Like the central idea of CACHE, what responsibility does an adult have for their wrong doings as a child, when those wrong doings have ruined the lives of others?
Thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) comes from wealth and fashions herself a great writer. She looks up to her beautiful, older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley, PRIDE & PREJUDICE) and has a crush on the gardener Robbie Turner (James McAvoy, THE KING OF SCOTLAND). Cecilia's father paid for Robbie's education, but though they were good friends as children, Cecilia barely spoke to Robbie while they attended the same school. On the day of her brother's return home, Briony sees something between her sister and Robbie at a fountain that she doesn't understand, and will play a devastatingly key role in a series of events that will forever change all three of their lives.
Ronan, who was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actress, is one of three actresses to play the character. Romola Garai (I CAPTURE THE CASTLE) plays Briony at 18 and Vanessa Redgrave plays her in old age. Garai's Briony must grapple with the choices Ronan's Briony did. The character's guilt is on display as she skips attending college during World War II to become a nurse in London where Cecilia is now a nurse. After five years, Robbie is now in the army, hoping to return soon to start a new life with Cecilia. He too regrets choices he made, running them over in his head, wishing he could go back and change innocent mistakes that turned into catastrophes.
Knightley is a natural beauty and talent. She carries herself like a classic movie star with grace and dignity. She handles both the dramatic and comedic notes of the story with precision. After watching her, you can't see any other actress playing the part. McAvoy is establishing himself as one of the premiere young actors. Covering the widest range of emotions, he still makes us believe he is the same person even if the wrongs that have been done to him have changed him. His performance is the film's emotional core.
Director Joe Wright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton handle the various points of view with simplicity, often doubling back and showing us events we have just seen, but from a new perspective. This technique becomes crucial in the end when the story presents us a new perspective on what has come before, giving us a profound new way of looking at regret and our inability to truly apologize for our greatest and most harmful transgressions. The conclusion is melancholy and hopeful at the same time; the film creates a haunting feeling unlike any other film I've seen before.
ATONEMENT is a film that stays with you for days. It doesn't hit you with an emotional sledgehammer, but attaches to your brain and keeps you thinking about what it all means and how it makes you feel about yourself. Though part of the story is about lovers torn apart, there are more unique emotional minefields that this film traverses that are disarmingly poignant.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
