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Another Spy Does ATONEMENT!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Joe Wright’s PRIDE & PREDJUDICE. I didn’t hate it... I just didn’t see anything in the telling that distinguished it from prior versions or that made it seem essential... worth telling again. Maybe I’ll feel differently about this adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel, which is getting fantastic reviews out of Toronto right now. Does this spy agree?
After another summer in which Hollywood has inflicted further crimes against cinema with its weapons of mass commercialism, it is with great relief that the new season is upon us. And just as inevitable as the trees shedding their leaves, film gets serious again.
First up in what I hope promises to be a great few months of new releases is Atonement, director Joe Wright’s adaptation of Ian McEwan’s acclaimed novel.
Beginning on a sweltering summer’s day in 1935, young Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) witnesses her older sister Cecelia (Keira Knightley) strip off and jump into a fountain in front of Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), a young man who works on their family’s vast grounds during the summer. Confused as to the meaning of what she has observed, this innocuous event proves to be a tragic turning point in the lives of all three people.
A terrible crime and an equally terrible accusation send these characters spiralling toward very different roles in the impending war. In 1940, Robbie finds himself stranded in France trying to get back to the coast and the mass evacuation at Dunkirk. Cecelia runs away to London and becomes a nurse. Briony (now played by Ramola Garai) follows her later, foregoing a place at Cambridge to also train as a nurse, though in her case as a means of seeking redemption for an act she will always regret.
This is Joe Wright’s second film, following his fresh take on Pride & Prejudice two years ago in which he coaxed the best performance to date from Knightley. She’s solid again here, effortlessly capturing the privilege and old-style glamour of the period’s aristocracy, but the stand-out turns belong to McAvoy, who consolidates his status as one of Britain’s brightest actors, and the young Ronan, who manages to convey both the fertile imagination and self-righteous indignation of the precociously creative Briony.
Production values are uniformly excellent, with Seamus McGarvey’s beautiful cinematography and Dario Marianelli’s sweeping score particularly noteworthy contributions to a largely satisfying film that will undoubtedly be anticipated and debated by the many fans of the novel.
McEwan is a great writer and, for me, Atonement is his masterpiece. His celebrated prose lingers on the minutiae of every imaginable detail, conveying a depth of meaning that elevates the narrative above the mere intrigue of plot to touch the sublime. The plot is, in fact, often secondary, the focus remaining squarely on the psychological and emotional arc of his characters. However, it is this, perhaps McEwan’s greatest strength, which is ultimately the film’s biggest weakness. As an adaptation, Christopher Hampton’s screenplay is certainly faithful, but this serves to highlight just how little plot there actually is. With so much of the novel’s dramatic weight anchored by interior monologue, the film struggles to find either the same level of complexity or sense of personal journey the reader experiences vicariously through the three central figures.
This is, of course, the most challenging and often frustrating dilemma faced by any adaptation of the written word; how to retain what makes the source material so special whilst still establishing an artistic identity of its own? It perhaps makes sense then that the film’s highpoint should be a truly remarkable sequence in which words play no part. As Robbie reaches the beach at Dunkirk, the camera follows his path, surveying the scale of the retreat in a virtuoso 4-minute single tracking shot. The ambition of the scene is staggeringly impressive, taking in the full chaos of the shattered British forces as they wait for the ships that will take them back home. It is an achievement of supreme logistical coordination and artful execution. The gliding camera’s dispassionate eye only seems to amplify the resonance of the devastation. For those that celebrate the phoney spectacle of CGI superheroes and warring giant robots, here is an opportunity to observe what epic cinema really means.
As the camera comes to rest on McAvoy’s shocked and weary face, his dead stare conveys a level of introspection in these moments that the rest of the film is unable to consistently attain. The novel switches between the perspective of the three characters, and while I commend the filmmakers for resisting what must have been a very tempting recourse to extensive voiceover, without the stream of consciousness insight so integral to McEwan’s style, it doesn’t quite feel that the characters are pushed to the brink in the same way they are in the book, which particularly detracts from the development of Briony’s contrition. As a result, the film feels slightly less than it should.
Nevertheless, this is still a strong piece of work and confirms Wright as one of Britain’s most promising young directors. Treating its difficult subject matter with due reverence and maturity, if it does fall short along the way, it is a failure that still offers ample and very welcome rewards in the pursuit of far loftier ambitions than your average, homogenized production.
Dickie Greenleaf
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Without doubt the best film I've seen all year. Beautiful and heartbreaking. I never read the novel so I can't compare it, but as a piece of cinema, it's almost perfect.
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...here in Ireland. A really good film. Slightly loses it's way once the war comes round and is sometimes guilty of being meandering, but the final few moments are excellent and give it huge weight.
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This is an old style of film similar to those made in Britain just before and during WW2,its not a bad film but it`s almost like watching a modern remake of Brief Encounter or Waterloo Bridge full of melodrama and very clipped dialogue maybe not a bad thing but i found it very cold for a love story unemotional,one thing that im finding very puzzling is why so many reviewers are touting Keira for an Oscar Nom as frankly she just doesn`t do enough to earn one in this what she does is well done but has little depth within the film, McAvoy however is excellent and Saoirse Ronan and Romola Garai as Briony Tallis just great...
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Seriously? Christ. I mean, she's ok, she does very well 'what Keira Knightley normally does', but worth an Oscar? No. This film causes me to double-think: I liked it a LOT, but at the same time, I'm underwhelmed by it. James McAvoy is certainly a charmer, though, but in completely the opposite direction to, say, Hugh Grant.
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where's the robots and smart ass riffin' ?
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Quality stuff, really stays with you. One question - did anyone who saw it thinks the "middle" incarnation of Briony, when she was a nurse looked like the one that plays Starbuck in the new Battlestar?
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shes that good. this film is f***ing fantastic. some of you may think you dont want to watch it, that its dull oscar fare, but really, this is fantastic cinema, with an incredibly original plot and a huge emotional punch. definitely film of the year so far.
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unquestionably mcewan's best. and i'd watch james mcavoy read the phone book.
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I agree that ATONEMENT is Ian McEwan's masterpiece. For anyone interested in sampling his work for the first time, I would suggest his newest book, ON CHESIL BEACH, a short read that is absolutely striking and unforgettable. If you like it, then sink your teeth into ATONEMENT. This is a really good review, although I disagree with the reviewer's comment about "how little plot there actually is". There is a LOT of plot in the novel, though it may not seem so, due to the fact that McEwan tackles it all from within the private worlds of his characters. I am relieved to hear that this film has some merit and look forward to seeing it.
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Atonement was really good with the exception of a scene or two near the ending. Keira was awesome as well as McAvoy, with some really great scenes including one awesome long war shot. Silk though...different story. Keira is underused and really doesn't add anything to the film. Some beautiful shots and all but really it was just way too long. Also the lead in Silk, the guy doesn't feel particularly right. Two Knightly films, one great, one not so great.
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I also saw SILK last night and felt the same about it as you - gorgeous film to look at but kind of boring. Some movies can be slow and long and still be compelling to watch, but that one didn't work. Knightley was good but indeed underused.
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maybe working title asked 'em to back off so people would forget about it by the time atonement opens here. those clever bastards!
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It's been on general release in the UK since Friday. Hardly takes James Bond powers of sleuthing to review it.
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