Deeply flawed but graceful adaptation of an admired novel

Rating: 6/10 (20 March 2015)

In this war romance based on a critically acclaimed novel, a girl through a series of misunderstandings accuses her sister's lover of a crime he did not commit, and it subsequently changes all of their lives. Joe Wright directs, and Keira Knightly and James McAvoy star. Another successful movie from Working Title, Atonement is a unique and sometimes powerful drama with shortcomings which fail to justify the number of academy award nominations. It's a good film but it's over-hyped. The film's selling point is its visuals, which are exquisite. The dazzling cinematography never fails to impress, and the legendary single take Dunkirk sequence is a beach scene to rival Saving Private Ryan's Omaha Beach battle sequence. Joe Wright's steady hand keeps the film afloat and his direction emphasizes the tension and (sometimes) the emotional power that the interesting storyline conveys. The visuals cannot be faulted, although the film too often spills into style over substance territory. Still, through the direction and staging, many individual scenes are powerful.
The trouble is that due to the complex narrative, the film keeps hopping between different events without coherency, which blunts its impact. The film isn't as powerful as it should be, since the love story is rushed and underdeveloped and the war scenes are just soldiers walking around mainly. Acting wise, James McAvoy does a good job and delivers on charisma and emotion with great success, but Keira Knightly, incapable of changing her voice even for one line, rarely touches the viewer. If she does, it's in a more distant way. She's not as awful as some say, but she just doesn't let her emotion through enough. As for Saoirse Ronan, she's striking at times, but too one note and emotionless to connect to the audience properly. Why she was nominated for an Oscar while McAvoy wasn't is a mystery. Overall, Atonement's script is uneven and only sometimes delivers on the emotion. Beautiful as the cinematography is, there's too much emphasis on visuals and not enough on the romance, which makes the story hard to care about at times. Still, that ending is a devastating sucker punch.
6/10