Atonement is the gorgeous girl at a party who cannot keep up a conversation. She might be fun to look at for a while, but eventually you will get tired and move on. Atonement is a beautifully shot film, especially the first hour, but its story is convoluted and lacking.
Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley) is a wealthy member of the British aristocracy, and Robbie (James McAvoy) is the son of one of the family's maids. He is well educated and preparing to be a doctor. The two of them begin a passionate love affair, which is sadly cut short by a case of mistaken identity. Cecilia's sister, Briony, suspects that Robbie is a pervert, and thinks that she sees him raping a girl outside the home. Obviously, that goes horribly wrong. Robbie is wrongfully imprisoned, tearing him away from Cecilia and forcing him to join the military instead of staying in jail.
The film is broken into three parts. The first is set at the idyllic English estate where the audience sees the burgeoning love affair between Robbie and Cecilia. The second is Robbie in France at the evacuation of Dunkirk longing for Cecilia and waiting to return to England, and the third is Briony dealing with her lie.
The first and third parts are masterfully shot, simply because of how different they are. The pastoral setting of the English countryside is lush, green and luminescent. Knightley looks angelic. She is slight and feminine, and her gauzy clothing casts a halo around her. Her features perfectly fit the healthy, natural scene.
The second part of the film is the exact opposite. The entire environment is covered in smoke and fog. Although the audience never gets to see the horrors of war firsthand, we are exposed to the horrible pragmatism of the evacuation and the bloodstained, wounded soldiers. There is an amazing tracking shot of the beach with the waiting soldiers that lasts several minutes and shows the chaos of war.
Unfortunately, this is where the film's strong points end. In a two-hour film about unrequited love, you would expect to see a burning romance between the main characters but do not look for that here. Robbie and Cecilia's relationship gets minimal screen time. It feels like Robbie is pining for a love affair that lasted a couple of hours instead of something that brewed inside him for his entire life.-
17 Archives
Chris Bruce
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