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Atonement
(2007)
It's that time of year again—when moviegoers
are barraged with Oscar hopeful after Oscar hopeful— and
it's easy to get overwhelmed and turned-off to the lot of them,
but Atonement is one film worth trudging back out
to the cinema for. While it isn't the pinnacle of perfection,
the film manages to make up for its few narrative and performance
flaws with exquisite execution of nearly every other element.
Despite the steep competition, Atonement comes as
close to technical precision as any film of 2007.
In 1935 Britain, Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a curious and
precocious thirteen-year-old with a writer's imagination misunderstands
the budding sexual relationship between her older sister Cecilia
(Keira Knightley) and the family's handsome gardener Robbie
(James McEvoy). Confused and disturbed after discovering an
unexpected and inconceivable crime committed on the family
estate, Briony makes an inaccurate and insistent accusation
that separates the couple and throws the lives of all three
characters into the chaos of the ensuing World War despite
the immunity to it they could have had due to class privilege. As
she ages, Briony (played in adulthood by Romola Garai and Vanessa
Redgrave) must come to terms with the consequences of her actions
and make it right as best she can.
There are several elements of Atonement which are left unexplored, primarily
class and gender (especially the consequences of the rape which acts as a catalyst
for the film's action) and the love story between Cecilia and Robbie feels forced
and unbelievable despite serving as the center of the film's conflict. Normally,
plot holes like these would sink a film beyond the point of well, atonement,
but the movie features such exquisite technical successes in virtually every
other area that it more than just recovers from its mistakes; it triumphs.
Helming the film, director Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice) weaves together
all the elements seamlessly. His mastery of mise-en-scène comes as quite a surprise
given his rather mediocre past output, and Atonement could easily be
used as a film-school textbook for parallel action. The flawless flow of action
is heightened by some of the year's best editing and a score by Dario Marianelli
that incorporates diagetic sound elements such as the clacking of a typewriter
and the banging of an umbrella on a car hood as rhythmic motifs. Similarly the
cinematography by Seamus McGarvey is beautiful to look at, and the four-and-a-half
minute tracking shot on the beach of Dunkirk will take your breath away with
its complexity and emotional power.
The only performance in the film which parallels the quality of the technical aspects is that of James McAvoy, who is clearly coming into his own as a leading actor (after supporting roles in last year's The Last King of Scotland and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). It's unfortunate that he was paired here with someone as wooden and emotionless as Knightley. Their final scene together before Robbie ships off to the war shows the difference in talent between the two performers, McAvoy drawing the audience in and Knightley merely spitting out her lines. For all McAvoy's work to prevent the film from slipping into weighty melodrama, Knightley and the supporting cast (not to mention the Wright's direction) push the action from the realm of believability to the verge of campiness.
Though Atonement isn't the most consistent film to grace
cinema screens this year, its mastery of the elements it gets
right is so complete that it more than makes up for any of its
flaws. It's a beautiful and compelling drama which pushes
the envelope of style in narrative construction, visuals and sound and is sure to grace many best of lists as the season wraps up. While the film deals heavily with guilt, seeing Atonement is not something you will regret.
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2004-2009 Thoughtsonfilm.com |
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Director:
Joe
Wright
Writer: Christopher
Hampton, Ian
McEwan
Starring: James
McEvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave
Distributor: Focus
Features
Runtime: 130
min
Rating: R
Release Date: December
7, 2007
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