Atonement

Every year there seems to be a British period drama that captures the hearts of critics everywhere and bombards award season. Normally I do not rush out to watch these typically dreary movies, but there was something about this particular one that kind of called to me. I cannot entirely say why, but some of it might be that I love Kiera Knightley or maybe because I heard about a 5 minute single take shot and hoped it would live up to the shot in Children of Men. Regardless of what got me to the theater, it would only matter if the movie lived up to the promises by critics everywhere. Did it?

Cecilia (Knightley) and Robbie (James McAvoy) are star crossed lovers, sort of. Robbie is the son of Cecilia's house's maid and they are not on the same economic scale, and Cecilia tries to come off like that matters and that they cannot be together, but it is obvious she loves him. Briony (played by 3 different actresses at different ages) is a 13 yr old girl (played by a Hayley Joel Osment look-a-like) who is the sister of Cecilia and is also in love with Robbie. She is a creepy little girl and our eyes for the story. We see scenes through her eyes first and then we see the whole scene and how it really played out. It is a bit confusing, but Briony witnesses something she doesn't fully understand and then she sees something horrifying and believes the two events are related and Robbie is sent to prison for rape. The movie cuts to four years later with Cecilia working as a nurse, Briony learning to be a nurse (to maybe atone for the sin she didn't realize four years ago) and Robbie is in the English Army, stationed in France fighting against Germany. Robbie and Cecilia had one meeting and they promised to always be together and promised to reunite during Robbie's next leave. Briony is starting to see that she made a mistake and she writes Cecilia to try and reconcile what happened.

There are other things that happen, but I think they are a bit too spoiler heavy and I don't want to ruin the movie for people who want to sit through it. This movie confirms why I do not typically attend these dreary dramas. Atonement moves at a snail's pace and when it finally gets where we think it is going, it turns out to be false hope. There are beautiful moments and gorgeous camera work, but it all seems to be for naught because it is just a boring picture. The character is Briony is obnoxious as a youth and kind of whiny as an adult and her weird soldier like walk got on my nerves often. The waifish, sexy accented Knightley does earnestly-in-love better than most girls do these days and no one makes smoking a cigarette look sexier, but ultimately I didn't think she really deserves the praise she is getting and McAvoy is a very strong actor and he is the one shining spot, especially in a very effective scene towards the tale end of the film. His anger bubbles over with intensity that appears to come from a totally different movie.

The one aspect of the movie that annoyed me more than any other was the score. Type writers figure greatly in the story of the movie, but that does not mean that every time there is under scoring type writer sounds have to be the overwhelming theme of the score. It gets irritating very quickly and really took me out of the movie. As the music swells towards something major all I can hear is the loud and obnoxious type writer clicks. For the record the five minute single shot is not nearly as impressive as I had imagined in my head. It is not a war time shot as I was led to believe. Instead, it is a continuous shot of soldiers on leave. It looks cool, sure, and I like how they weaved the three major soldiers in and out of the shot, but I guess I just wanted something more from it. I didn't hate the movie, but I didn't like it either. The first half hour is probably the strongest and Joe Wright (The director) shoots a very hot love scene between the two very attractive leads, but as soon as that scene ends, the movie kind of loses it's steam.

Final Grade: C