‘Atonement’ makes for truly great period melodrama

Sean "The Movie Guy" McBride
The Port Arthur News

January 15, 2008 03:00 pm

— Fans of films like “The English Patient” will be thrilled with “Atonement,” a highbrow tale of doomed romance set against the backdrop of World War II. This is a superbly-made film that all but cries out for Oscar accolades — featuring a meaty story, solid performances by the British cast, amazing production design and a musical score that I think to be the best of the past year. These melodramatic period pieces may not be your cup of tea, but I’m hard pressed to say anything negative at all about the film. In a more traditional year, “Atonement” would be exactly the sort of film destined for Academy Award greatness. That being said, this is not a traditional year, and I’m not even sure that “Atonement” will get nominated. Still, Oscar politics aside, there’s no denying that “Atonement” is one of the truly great films of 2007.
“Atonement” tells the story of an upper-middle-class family sweltering through a lazy English summer in the days before the start of World War II. Keira Knightly plays Cecilia, and she has developed a passion for handsome Robbie (James McAvoy), a member of the serving staff who has dreams of becoming a country doctor. Cecilia’s younger sister, Briony (Saoirse Ronan) has also developed a crush on Robbie, and as a young teenager, she’s too inexperienced to keep her emotions in check when she catches the two making love one evening.
Events transpire that a young cousin goes missing, and Briony catches the girl in the bushes with an older man. Briony tells the police that Robbie was the attacker; a lie that she will spend the rest of her life regretting.
Robbie is arrested, but allowed to serve out his sentence by enlisting in the military four years later when the Great War heats up. Cecilia is devastated and enlists as a nurse in order to be closer to the man she loves. Briony, now grown (Romola Garai) is wracked with guilt. She too enlists as a nurse, hoping somehow to mend the romance that she tore asunder four summers ago.
Based on the acclaimed novel from Ian McEwan, “Atonement” has all the passion of pulp fiction, but the refined characters and setting of classic literature. Director Joe Wright is the perfect man to bring the book to life, bringing just the right touch to both the English country estate scenes as well as the later war sequences. One four-minute steadicam shot in particular, during the chaos of the evacuation of Dunkirk, is so magnificently staged that it may be worthy of Oscar Gold all by its self.
Couple all of this with a pitch perfect English cast and a score that uses typewriter keystrokes as memorable percussion and you’re left with a lush, epic story that is everything you might ever want from an arty melodrama. “Atonement” takes the number two spot on my list for best films from 2007.
Movie reviews by Sean, “The Movie Guy,” are published bi-weekly in “The Port Arthur News” and weekly on KFDM-TV. Sean welcomes your comments via email at smcbride@kavutv.com.
 

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