Beautiful film

Rating: 9/10 (22 September 2007)

This film has stayed with me since I saw it last week and I think it will for a long time. It is visually and emotionally beautiful, and demands your attention from the very start. I have read other books by Ian McEwan but not Atonement - and I am now apprehensive of reading it for fear it will not live up to the film (and as someone who 1. is usually unimpressed by Keira Knightley and 2. really rates Ian McEwan's other novels, that is high praise indeed)! Keira does well, all actors involved are well cast, but James McAvoy utterly steals the show. A stunning performance, and one that should warrant an Oscar nomination. You cannot help but fall in love with his character, and although understated he will, in turn, make you smile, swoon, laugh out loud, and weep. The cinematography backs up his performance wonderfully, the Dunkirk scene lives up to the hype, and the music is great. Extremely impressive film.