Atonement
Can you remember your first crush? Seems silly to ask but just humour me a little. Can you remember the first time your heart leaped, soared and stuck like a sore lump in your throat as you whispered love about them? Those doodles and careless wishing. That person, no matter what age, would always stick in your mind. Even though now, when you think back, it probably wasn’t love at all. Imagine, then being a young girl who is experience all these emotions, only for the man of your affections (albeit, a considerably older man than you) to be desperately in love with your sister. Imagine the pain and anguish you’d feel, you’d want to do something stupid…
Well, Atonement is about that young girl doing something incredibly stupid, except there is a harsher more sinister tone to it. Starring James McAvoy, Kiera Knightly and Saorise Ronan, Atonement is about two lovers Cecilia and Robbie (McAvoy and Knightly.) Cecilia is an upper-class socialite and Robbie is the educated servant’s son who helps out around the house. Briony (Ronan) is the brattish younger child of Cecilia who is hopefully in love with Robbie. When she catches the pair together, she is distraught and furious. And when her cousin is attacked, Briony throws the blame at Robbie, pulling apart the lovers…
Joe Wright has an absolutely stunning eye sweeping cinematography and beautiful direction. In case you don’t believe me, check out his latest work on Anna Karenina and the use of the stage environment to tell the tale. Here with Atonement the similar broken narrative, absolutely captivating style and the novel way of bringing the story (funnily enough, from a novel) to life is simply breath-taking. Wright, alongside cinematographer Seamus McGarvey make an almost poetic movie with its visual wonders.
Not to say that is all that is good with Atonement, the story is full of this hard hitting impact that takes you in a direction you never saw coming. The key components, Robbie, Cecilia and Briony, all fit together well as they navigate false allegations, war and separation. As Briony grows up, she must come to terms with what she has done and that speaks volumes here. The acting is of high calibre, being the movie that really placed McAvoy on the map. Here as Robbie, he gives a spectacular wrought and stellar portray of a man torn apart by a lie. Knightly and Ronan hold up their own too. And Benedict Cumberbatch makes an incredible turn as the villainous Paul Marshall; though a bit player, his creepy presence will certainly knock that crush you have on him out of you.
Atonement is hard hitting, as much as a period drama can be. Instead of romanticising the era, the story is rather a bitter pill to swallow. It digs into your skin and doesn’t let go. With a brutal and crushing end, it is a different breed of film that drags you in with its beauty and completely stings with it’s story.
TTFN
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