In the Dark – Atonement

Genre: Drama (read: not really a romance)

Tagline: You can only imagine the truth

Ebert gave it: 4 stars

Usually when a movie gets a million and one nominations including Best Picture my heart skips a beat. It makes me so excited to see the masterpiece, but in the recent past it hasn’t necessarily been one movie that takes all the high honors – and in my opinion this has been one of the better years for movies and it will be near impossible for a movie to monopolize at the award show. So I walked into Atonement not knowing what to expect. One fellow copywriter thought it looked like “paint by numbers Best Picture”: 1. Tragic romance, check 2. War epic, check 3. Period piece, check 4. Up and coming actor/actress, check. Interesting thing to hear right before I see this movie.

I have not read this book (I know, I know blah blah – I won’t mention anything about the adaptation) and I didn’t go to this movie alone – breaking two of my rules, but I was scared this would be a tear jerker filled with couples and normally I’m ok with that, but my co worker accompanied me to the theatre and it worked out for the best as we shared views on the movie afterward. This theatre was packed! There were girls taking up whole roles and couples galore – including the one sitting right in front of me who fed each other popcorn and kept kissing –eww keep it to yourselves when in public!

The movie opens at a wealthy English home of Cecilia and Briony Tallis (Keira Knightley and Romola Garai to start). Cecilia is rebellious and in love with the housekeeper’s son, Robbie (James McAvoy), who is educated but still seen as beneath her. Briony is the younger sister who has a crush (think first crush) on Robbie. She sees and misinterprets him flirting with Cecilia and is convinced he is sex crazed. Later when other events occur – an intercepted love letter, and two interrupted trysts (one being quite possibly the hottest sex scene I’ve seen on film in a while) Briony tells an unforgivable lie (out of doubt and possibly jealousy), breaking Cecilia and Robbie apart. Robbie is shipped off to jail and later joins the army, while Cecilia leaves home, trying to heal her broken heart and becomes a nurse for the war. Briony, feeling guilty year later and realizing her mistake seeks out her sister to set things right for the couple.

I really don’t like Knightley and for me she ruined this. Apparently you just have to have an English accent to be a leading lady sometimes. The movie is beautifully filmed; the cinematography and the music score (with the typewriter sounds pounding out the beats) are amazing. McAvoy is one person who can save Knightley, but even his skills run dry. Although there is one scene where he gets really intense with a monologue…but that’s about it (one monologue does not a movie make). I loved him in Becoming Jane and in The Last King of Scotland – I know he has it in him; unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of room for him to come out and perform with all the jumping around the movie does. There is a lot of cutting forward and flashing back to get difference character’s points of view, and although they are done flawless and without confusion it cuts some of the interior story lines short – not allowing us to see the development of certain things (like the love). Some movies can get away with this by filling an audience in later and making us feel like we have not actually missed all the time that has passed, but in Atonement it is not the case. I was pissed off with the ending until the turn came and then I was pleased, only to be let down tremendously with the ending scene that was unnecessary and horribly tacky after the beautiful film. The shots of the war and soldiers waiting to be shipped home is heartbreaking and really made the whole movie worth something. I was pissed off with the ending until the turn came and then I was pleased, only to be let down tremendously with the ending scene that was unnecessary and horribly tacky after the beautiful film. And one more thing, the tagline doesn’t make sense – there is really no misleading in this movie…no suspense – not for one minute do you doubt Robbie…but if you did it would make this a heck of a lot more interesting. (in my line of work we call this false advertising)Overall the movie was outstanding when it comes to the look and music, the acting however fell short. Maybe I’m cynical but this is not a movie about love , it’s a movie about lies, guilt, and consequences. The story between Cecilia and Robby would have been more believable and heartfelt had it been developed more, but it wasn’t and I was disappointed and found much of it awkward and foreign. I was pleased with Briony’s character and the way that she developed and that also helped the movie in a big way.

My rating:

Absolute, this movie fell way short for me; it left me (and my movie friend) feeling dissatisfied and iffy. The cinematography and direction were amazing, the musical score was to die for, and the story was there – it just wasn’t well presented by the actors and therefore I don’t think it is Best Picture material. One thing to remember is the Golden Globes allows for some leeway when it comes to the nominations. It is split between comedy/musical and drama so there are some movies that Atonement won’t have to compete with in this first award show meeting – but when the Oscars come I think this one won’t be close to the front…especially when so many other great movies have the acting talent needed to make a success.

For those of you who think I’m off base for whatever reason I’m not the only person who hated this, other reviewers felt that the whole thing fell short.