Were Atonement released in the spring or summer, it would be regarded as an above-average literary adaptation, and left at that. But because it’s opening at the end of the year, it’s a big Oscar film.
This take on Ian McEwan’s novel unfolds in a way in which, if you’re unfamiliar with the source material, the replaying of scenes from different characters’ perspectives creates a mystery in the first half-hour over where this is going. Director Joe Wright (Sense and Sensibility) carries Atonement through various dramatic shifts. Precocious 13-year-old Briony (Saoirse Ronan) devotes herself to intellectual pursuits like playwriting, never admitting her girly crush on Robbie (James McAvoy), a servant for her wealthy English family. Envious that Robbie has a thing for her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley), she falsely accuses him of rape.
But while the tale of love-lost irreversibly damages its three leads, Wright doesn’t give the movie a lasting mental impact. It took me a moment to recall the film’s events only a week after seeing it, and that’s a result of how Wright prioritizes his themes. The injustice of Cecilia and Robbie being separated hasn’t nearly the emotional weight the film demands. Before Robbie is taken away and begins fighting the war in France, nothing in their brief flirtatious affair encompasses the everlasting love Wright depends on. It’s Briony’s self-exile, the way her own discomfort with love doomed her life, that becomes the movie’s true interest. But the empathy isn’t there; Wright doesn’t imagine Briony as more than a deluded villain, so the final scene plays as petty judgment.
The film’s big showpiece is an extended tracking shot over the beach of Dunkirk. It’s a staggering technical display that, like much of Atonement, manages to be compelling without meaning a lot.
This article appears in Dec 20-26, 2007.