Atonement

I read the book, people. I READ THE DAMN BOOK, so I have no excuses. I knew exactly how it was to end, and yet I insisted on watching it. And poor Mike, he was depressed for the rest of the night. I owe him BIG time.

But Atonement was such a wonderful, powerful, superbly-acted movie, that I think that you have to approach it with an attitude resembling: "'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

Like, it's painful, but it's SO worth it.

Atonement opens with the sound of typing. A young girl, Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), is writing a play in anticipation of her cousins' visit, and she plans on them acting it out for her visiting elder brother and sister's amusement. This family? Veeeery well-educated. Cecilia (Keira Knightley), the elder sister, has just finished her schooling at Oxford and is wondering what to do with her life. Their brother, Leon, went up to Cambridge. It's obvious from the beginning that this is a close family, who admire and care for each other deeply.

Robbie (James McAvoy), the housemaid's son, put through Oxford by the Tallis family patriarch, is slowly settling in to the realization that he must take chances in order to get what he wants.

What begins with a misunderstanding, and a child's belief that she knows what she's seen and read, leads to catastrophic events for all involved. For the rest of her life, Briony seeks to atone for her horrible mistake, which sends lives into a whirlwind of misery.

Sounds awesome, right?

There was much written about the love scene in the library - and oh... it's good. Oh, it's very good. Almost getting as much press was the green dress worn by Keira Knightley, and I can see why. I loved it. LOVED it. Mike was nonplussed, as he's not a huge Knightley fan, but there was no denying that the dress was perfection:

It wasn't just the famed green dress - the costume design was superb:

Sure, there were other people in the film who wore clothes, I suppose, but Keira is just so pretty...

The musical score was also inspired. Using the clicks and clacks of typewriter keys, the viewer is constantly, if not consciously, aware of the ways in which the story is unfolding into a book.

Because the book was written in sections, the director, Joe Wright, made a few modifications. This involved jumping between dates and events, sometimes forward in time. It would have been confusing had each accompanying scene not been a reiteration from a different point of view. I found this extremely well done and caused me to lean in just a little closer with anticipation.

And then we are hit with the 4 1/2 minute tracking scene on the beaches of Dunkirk. Wow. Such an achievement.

If you are aware of war symbolism, especially the horrors of WWI, then the field of poppies will mean more to you than most, and it might even save you from the devastatingly sad, twist-like pronouncement at the conclusion.

This film translated brilliantly from the book and enhanced, rather than detracted, from Ian McEwan's prose. I would recommend, as usual, reading the book before viewing the film. The book delves a little deeper into class distinctions, character development, and the hell of war. Besides, I still feel that seeing the movie first is a bit like cheating.

I'm still trying to decide which was more depressing, Atonement or Pan's Labyrinth.

I'll go with Pan's, but I think that it's a close race.

So, after all of that, if you still want to see Atonement, you'll be rewarded with amazing acting and an intoxicating screenplay. If you can see the screen through your tears, that is.