Rating of
4/4
Atonement: Well worth seeing
Katvellour - wrote on 03/09/08
The opening scene of Atonement, which pans through an English country estate to find a little girl sitting at her typewriter, immediately pulled me into 1935 England. The flowery wallpaper and dusty wooden children’s toys felt so real to me, it was as if I had lived during that time, and there I stayed throughout the film.
As the movie opens, we see Briony Tallis, a 13-year-old writer played by the effervescent Saoirse Ronan, putting the finishing touches on a play that she has just written and plans to produce with her cousins. The war is a major character in the story, which centers around a turn of events involving Briony, altering her life and that of those around her. One of those people is her older sister, Cecilia, played by Keira Knightley. This actress has matured from her previous roles, such as the non-lesbian soccer player in Bend it Like Beckham. Here she appears in a number of dusty pink, gauzy 1930’s costumes that suit her admirably, as well as one of those white swimsuits that make you think of swans, and pulls off the feisty young woman quite well. James McAvoy is adorable as Robbie, the student/gardener with a crush on Cecilia. The close-ups of his ruddy face make it look as though he’s often on the verge of crying or admitting to petting his cat too much.
My one complaint is the underutilization of Brenda Blethyn, one of my favorite British actresses (Lovely and Amazing; Secrets and Lies, among many), who plays Robbie’s mother. There is also a cameo by Vanessa Redgrave. The cinematography by Seamus McGarvey contains many scenes depicting the details of war which are often overlooked in other films—hospitals, for instance, with lead paint peeling and bloody soldiers on stretchers—and a scene of the evacuation of Allied soldiers on the beach at Dunkirk. The score, by Dario Marianelli, is edgy and beautiful. All in all, a very intriguing film, one that I was compelled to see again.
