Atonement | Little White Lies

Atone­ment

07 Sep 2007 / Released: 07 Sep 2007

Words by Lorien Haynes

Directed by Joe Wright

Starring James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, and Saoirse Ronan

Two people embracing by the sea
Two people embracing by the sea
4

Anticipation.

A match for the novel?

4

Enjoyment.

Meat for the eyes and muscle for the heart.

3

In Retrospect.

Miscast actresses, but it’s not their fault – production went for box-office, director went for objectification.

Joe Wright’s World War Two weepie is a near mas­ter­piece that only lacks the sub­stance of great performances.

In the 1980s Mer­chant Ivory epit­o­mised Eng­lish­ness-for-export in all its dap­per, dubi­ous glo­ry. Now Atone­ment seeks to re-estab­lish this her­itage cin­e­ma with the sto­ry of a brief encounter dur­ing World War Two giv­en a con­tem­po­rary twist cour­tesy of the dark cur­rents of Ian McEwan’s novel.

It also qual­i­fies direc­tor Joe Wright as a major tal­ent; his active cam­era is so vis­cer­al that a sol­dier framed against a bleed­ing sky in a field of scorch­ing pop­pies brings tears to the eyes. And again as he weaves through decrepit bod­ies on the beach­es singing dour, heavy-heart­ed hymns.

The struc­tur­al, non-lin­ear sto­ry-telling is supe­ri­or too, switch­ing from Chat­ter­ley-esque lovers Rob­bie (James McAvoy) and Cecil­ia (Keira Knight­ley), to child/​woman Briony (Romo­la Garai) whose jeal­ous­ly and false accu­sa­tion tears them asun­der. It’s in the accep­tance of its audience’s sophis­ti­ca­tion that – what­ev­er your fel­low­ship with the nov­el – the film finds its own language.

Atone­ment is a near mas­ter­piece that only lacks the sub­stance of great per­for­mances. McAvoy is charm­ing as ever, yet the mis­tress­es of the manor – who both love and resent the housekeeper’s son – dis­ap­point. Knight­ley is all vacant petu­lance while Garai is insipid and damp.

Where the film des­per­ate­ly need­ed a female heavy­weight, what we have instead is a bot­tle green satin but­ter­fly which McAvoy pins against the library wall, and not a real woman in sight.

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