by Brett Parker
Atonement is a film that starts off overflowing with smoldering sensuality then spirals into grim devastation. The fact that I am saying this about a World War II British melodrama suggests how special and unique the film really is. The previews make it look like another stuffy and stiff British romance, but director Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice) springs too many visual and narrative surprises on us to allow that to happen.
The film opens on a luxurious British estate in 1935. We meet Briony (Saoirse Ronan), a spunky, creative little girl who announces she has just written a new play. Briony is the youngest child in the wealthy Tallis family, which also includes her older sister, Cecilia (Keira Knightley). Cecilia is a rebellious woman of privilege who is as attractive as she is stuck-up. Also on the estate grounds is Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the son of the housekeeper who was educated at Oxford with financial help from Cecilia’s father. Both Cecilia and Robbie were classmates at Oxford yet steered clear of each other. Cecilia’s brother (Patrick Kennedy) thinks this was due to class differences, but we suspect it may be because of the strong, sexual tension between them.
These three serve as the principal characters in this story and their situation begins to unravel during one hot summer day on the estate. Briony unwittingly witnesses a series of sexual episodes between Cecilia and Robbie. These episodes include a wet meeting at a fountain, an explicit love note, and a sexual rendezvous on a bookcase. To Briony, these situations make Robbie come across as a sexual predator. To Cecilia and Robbie, they realize they are just young people who can’t control their passions. Briony is conflicted by her feelings towards Robbie and the raw sexuality that is hitting her like a ton of bricks. Later that evening, Briony comes across her cousin Lola (Juno Temple) being involved in what appears to be a sexual attack. Although her memory of what happened is vague, Briony accuses Robbie of attacking Lola and he is quickly hauled off to jail.
This opens up the film’s darker and tragic chapters, in which Robbie evades prison by joining the British army, Cecilia joins the war effort, and Briony becomes a war nurse in an effort to redeem herself for the emotional damage she has caused others as well as herself. I will not reveal what happens to these characters, only to say that we witness the overwhelming emotional damage they’ve experienced as a result of that fateful day until a surprise in the end is revealed and we realize not only the true nature of events, but that Briony may have experienced the worst internal grief of all.
Atonement is a film that is able to penetrate the formalities of British melodrama and exposes raw emotions and sexuality we may not have noticed before. Indeed, the sexuality in the film’s beginning almost scorches the screen. Cecilia and Robbie’s sexual encounter in the mansion library, shot without a score and in close-ups, is probably the best sex scene of the year. It is when the film descends into its tragic second half that the actors are able to run wild with raw, intense emotions that are scarcely fleshed out in this genre.
And what actors Wright has assembled for this piece! Keira Knightley reaches new heights of sensuality and grace in her portrayal of Cecilia while James McAvoy proves he is getting better and better with each film he does. McAvoy is a force to be reckoned with, painting Robbie’s passions and anger with the skill of a seasoned veteran. The scene in which Robbie finally and angrily confronts a grown-up Briony (Romola Garai) is acted to perfection. And what a find 13-year-old Saoirse Ronan is! Her portrayal of Briony is a sensational showcase of internalized characterizations and conflicts. I’m not one of those critics who go nuts over child actors, but Ronan is the real deal. She’s mastered emotions in this film that most actresses in their twenties still wrestle with. I hope the academy takes notice.
Joe Wright also deserves serious Oscar consideration. He breaks away from several genre conventions and breathes fresh and inventive visualizations throughout the film. The way in which the opening scenes’ point of view shifts between Briony and Robbie is skillfully handled. The film’s much talked-about one take shot, in which Robbie walks through the devastating aftermath of a war battle, is a rich and wonderful shot that deserves its acclaim. The film’s production design and costumes all look great and Wright presents it with an exciting vision not typical of this kind of filmmaking.
The film’s epilogue even adds to the richness of the narrative by revealing a twist that redefines most of what we’ve witnessed in this film. It reveals the nature of an unreliable narrator as well as the painful contrast between what happens in our memory versus what happens in reality. At first, I though this ending was a bit of a cheat, but considering Briony’s literary and imaginative nature as well as the typewriter sound interwoven throughout the film, I realized the twist only enriches the film’s complex ideas on the nature of atonement.
My only complaint about the film is that I wish it completely broke free of its genre formalities and tried for something entirely original. There are still passages in this film that walk and talk like typical wartime romances, with their sappy music and breathless declarations of love. Perhaps the film should’ve made like Marie Antionette and completely shattered convention with wild creativity. Not with punk music or American slang of course, but with more of Wright’s effective eye for filmmaking.
Yet this is only a minor complaint. I could just be being a spoiled movie brat. Atonement is one of the best acted, best looking, and most thoughtful examples of a genre I’ve never been really passionate about. Just to find one that is watchable would be enough, but to find one that plays on your emotions and has you thinking about it days after you’ve seen it, now there’s something I don’t find everyday!
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