Classic Novel-----------Average Movie

Rating: 4/10 (14 May 2012)

A huge production of Ian McEwans great novel, this is like a cheese omelette (without the cheese)...a beef stroganoff (without the beef)...a big Mac...(without the patties). This is a movie that simply...does not satisfy...one feels one has ate a huge meal..yet still feels empty. The two leads James McAvoy and Keira Knightly are very good. The direction is also well above average. It is one of those annoying "stiff upper lip" British flicks that doesn't cut the mustard. (Whats that old boy ??..!!) Yes OK life is full of personal tragedies, but the complexity of the mistake that a 13 year old child makes (in extreme circumstances) is sad...sure, but not a sin. Somehow it is she who i feel sorry for. She was a girl becoming sexually aware, who also had a crush on her big sisters lover. What she did had huge ramifications ...but i don't see how a girl of her age (in a 1935 English country setting) could know anything about adult emotions. And that is the problem...in the book it is all made very clear. Some novels should NOT be made into movies....this is one.