Based upon a book I’ve never heard of, this is Keira Knightley’s turn at doing something dramatic for America after being in Disney’s Pirates franchise, Domino and King Arthur. Men and WNBA stars hoping to see her naked will be disappointed, the R rating is for the subject matter.
In the Summer of 1935, life is pretty good for the wealthy, aristocratic Tallis family. Despite the heat, the looming Hitler menace and an aunt’s ugly, public divorce (she ran off with a radio personality), it’s good to be in the English countryside, away from it all. The youngest daughter Briony spends her time writing plays, logging in her journal and being a rather high-strung, staid child (pain in the ass). Even when she walks around the manor, Briony makes 90-degree turns around corners with something under her arm like she were delivering top-secret plans to MI5. This creative writing talent coupled with being only 13 gives her an air of being melodramatic and prone to misunderstanding the context of what she sees.
So when Briony witnesses a rather awkward exchange between her older sister Cecilia (Knightley) and the groundskeeper Robbie (McAvoy) by the fountain, her immature mind fills in the gaps. Robbie’s “first draft” of a written apology to Cecilia only heightens Briony’s paranoia because Robbie makes the error of asking Briony to deliver it. Instead, she reads it before turning it over to Cecilia. This leads to Robbie being in an uncomfortable situation: he’s counting on Mr. Tallis loaning him the money to attend medical school; his mother is also a servant for the Tallis family (she could be dismissed) and he was invited to the dinner party the Tallises are having to celebrate the return of the oldest son Leon and his friend Paul. Fortunately, Cecilia confronts Robbie first. Words fly, the incident is forgiven as they confess their love for each other, only to have Briony inopportunely walk in on their reciprocation.
I won’t go on about the story there any further since it would be a spoiler but the movie jumps forward a few years to WWII. Robbie is trapped in France with thousands of other soldiers during the disastrous evacuation at Dunkirk. Cecilia is a nurse working in London. Briony is a nurse in-training. The themes of Atonement then shift to regret, forgiveness, determination and the truth being subjective.
Atonement is a difficult story to tell in any medium. The audience witnesses events first as Briony followed by a sudden “rewind” in time to watch the same things repeat with Cecilia and Robbie. The first instance was puzzling but subsequent usage could be anticipated. Director Joe Wright then switches to showing the WWII part of the movie in a non-linear manner which I guess is supposed to emphasize how much the lovers want to be reunited. I found it jarring. However, the ending was more insulting. It wasn’t awful or cheesy but I felt disappointed over being on the receiving end of a rope-a-dope maneuver M Night Shyamalan hasn’t pulled off since The Sixth Sense.
Worth Seeing? Despite the ending, yes. It’s a drama with one sequence TV will reduce that the theater captured, this immense scene of what a mess Dunkirk was. It reminded me of the famous scene from Gone with the Wind when the camera pans back to show the rows upon rows of wounded soldiers. Atonement does it as a long, continuous shot following Robbie around while he’s seeking someone in command. Maybe it’ll look as good on one of those new big-screen TVs.