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Tragic Lovestory (B+ Grade) Dec 02, 2008
Atonement is such a beautifully shot movie. Every scene was filmed perfectly and Keira Knightley must be one of the most beautiful actresses in the past decade to act on screen. (Even though someone should make her eat a hamburger or two because she is very skinny) I also read the book by Ian McEwan and I must say the interpretation to screen was very well done.
This is a very tragic love story because of what someone thinks they see and their actions that set into motion events that will destroy three lives. I also feel that this was very much a fairy tale. We have beautiful princess in love with her beautiful prince and the evil villainess who separates them forever. But the villainess finds redemption and realizes the horrors of what she had done and looks to atone for her sins.
The tragedy is all because of what a thirteen year old girl thinks she sees. Briony has a very active imagination. She loves to write plays and stories and sees the world in a very different way from those around her. It is the summer of 1935 in England, right before World War II. This should be a carefree summer of swimming, playing and enjoying life. Briony has an older sister, Cecilia (Keira) who acts quite worldly. Briony looks up to her older sister and Cecilia treats Briony as any older sister would with their annoying younger sister. Then there is the housekeeper's son Robbie (James McAvoy) Briony has a crush on Robbie. Robbie humors Briony. Robbie wants Cecilia. Cecilia, even though she acts cold to Robbie, wants him as much as he wants her.
As Briony watches from her bedroom window, she sees a confrontation between Robbie and Cecilia and assumes something is wrong. As we find out what she thinks she sees is misconstrued. This starts the ball rolling. Robbie has been invited to dinner by Briony and Cecilia's brother. We see him typing away at his typewriter trying to come up with a note to apologize to Cecilia. He decides to have a little fun and types a very sexual graphic and bunt note about what he would like to do to Cecilia. He doesn't think it will ever be read by anyone and instead writes a more formal note. BUT, by accident Robbie takes the graphic note and hands it to Briony to give to Cecilia. OOOPS!! Briony reads it (even though I can't understand how at her age she knows what one of the words means) and thinks Robbie is a sex fiend. But she still gives the note to Cecilia who is very intrigued by his blunt words.
Poor Robbie thinks his goose is cooked and when he knocks on the door, Cecilia answers. They both come to an agreement about how they feel for each other in a darkened library. And do they ever- the best scene in the whole movie! Briony comes across them and is shocked by what she sees. This is the final third strike against Robbie and Cecilia. As the night goes on a horrible thing happens to Briony's older cousin Lola and Briony is right there to blame Robbie.
Because of Briony's lies and confusion, she destroys any chance at happiness Robbie and Cecilia can have together. Briony's life is also ruined as you will come to see. Four years go by, Robbie is off fighting in France, Cecilia is a nurse separated from her family and Briony wants to make amends, but can't. There is tragedy on all ends and these three people will never be carefree or happy ever again. To the very end Briony is the one who tells this tale and you will be crying over her pain and suffering and that of her sister and her young lover, who only had a small moment together in that dark library against the shelves.
Katiebabs
 Drama that doesn't cut deep enough Nov 26, 2008
I'm not going to spend a lot of time discussing this film, because quite frankly it isn't worthy of that much attention. But since it is a British period piece based on a prestigious novel, a lot of people went nuts over it. Essentially the plot deals with a young girl, who driven by jealousy, tells a lie that ends up ruining the lives of two people. The title, as you have probably gathered, refers to her attempts to atone for this one mistake. There are lots of things wrong with this movie. For starters, the acting isn't up to the material. James McAvoy and Keira Knightley fizzle in the lead roles. The central plot device, i.e. the lie that destroys their lives, is rather unplausible. It seems to me that any kind of real detective work would have revealed the truth. But the biggest problem is that the movie is emotionally empty. Shouldn't a film that deals with a character's guilt and remorse sting with the ache of regret and sorrow? You never feel anything for any of these characters. It's only in the final moments, when Vanessa Redgrave shows up that the film generates any real emotion. By that time, you stopped caring about any of what was going on a long time ago.
 A moment of envy lives on with tragic consequences... Nov 24, 2008
What is so very interesting about this film is the sense by which you cannot uniformly condemn the central character, Briony, for her vengeful actions as a child. It would be too easy to dismiss her as hateful and motivated by envy, but is this a fair assessment of a child's view? Are we being asked to question the nature of her style of upbringing, being sweet, nice, productive, even tempered, ordered and denying base human emotion to the point of barely having the capaicty to register such feeling and thus allow it to journey, untamed, unacknowledged in our actions?
Did she believe what she saw? Was she manipulated by those who were perhaps not as innocent as they claimed to be for fear of lost power and respect?
The damage done is far reaching, compellingly tragic and infuriatingly inequitable. The conclusion almost viewed by the central figure as having finally reached a virtual pay back, her life for those she ruined seemingly, so unwittingly.
This a complex study of intense, raw human emotion and both the key and peripheral performances are beautifully executed. Immensley tragic and stunningly beautiful in terms of cinematography and musical score.
The capturing of the dynamic and historic essence of the time is perfection and one is filled with the kind of questions about the human condition that are so incredibly difficult to answer affirmatively and rely upon.
This along with the sense that Brionay is not so much an intensely spiteful child as a child whoes unmanaged longings express themselves with a sense of prolonged tragedy any child might easily fall victim too.
0 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Boring and Depressing, Liked the twist at the end Nov 18, 2008
This is a movie about how not to be in life. In fact the supporting character who reeks havoc in the movie, Briony, has got to be one of my least favorite people of all time.
That being said, this is a beautiful looking movie and started out as something I liked. As time goes on it degrades into something dark and depressing; which war often is. It is an interesting look into that era.
I watched this at a girls' movie night and the general consensus was that it was pretty boring. We decided it must be the surprise ending that got it all of the awards, that and the beautiful settings in the beginning of the movie. The ending convinced me that Briony is the most selfish, evil (yet not evil) character ever. That and in general the movie was just depressing.
I am glad I saw it, I would never watch it again.
0 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 Hiss!! Boo!! Laughably Overrated & Boring Film Nov 16, 2008
Wow, if Atonement is the "Best Picture" of 2007, then Hollywood was really scraping the bottom of the barrel for candidates. After hearing about all of the accolades received by "Atonement", my wife and I decided to rent this film and give it a shot. After all, anything voted "Best Picture" has got to be pretty decent. Right? Um, yeah. I guess we were wrong. I have now completely lost all respect and regard for some of these so-called "professional movie critics". Atonement is painfully slow-moving, with dull characters and a complete lack of the dramatic. By the time we reached the mid-way point, this movie had lost me completely and I found myself wishing that it would just end already.
Some people out there would surely accuse me of needing to be spoon-fed nothing but action, violence, and gore. Nonsense. Try watching the movie "Amadeus", which is one of my favorite movies of all time and achieves a wonderfully dramatic and moving storyline without the use of such bells and whistles. Truly a masterpiece of filmmaking and storytelling. None of this is to be found in "Atonement", which is simply 130 minutes of crust. There is a fine line between character/story development, and simply nothing happening outside of boring and pointless dialogue. Atonement falls into the latter of the two categories.
I'm sorry, but adding a WWII theme and dragging the story out to a 2+ hour run time does not simply result in an "epic" film, nor does it put the film into the same category as "Titanic", or even a "Pearl Harbor". Clearly the makers of Atonement were shooting for this type of result (Historic theme + Love = great movie) but this film fails on so many fronts, and is laughably overrated.
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