Lavish historical fiction, unmoving drama

Rating: 6/10 (5 January 2008)

Atonement beautifully and lovingly reconstructs the high life of the British aristocracy between the wars and the early, dark days of World War II. Unfortunately, there is much less to it than meets the eye. While the filmmaker clearly wishes us to feel a profound sense of horror and injustice at the false accusation laid against an innocent man which rests at the heart of the film, I couldn't help but feel that somehow the real horror was that this charge was laid against someone who was model handsome and well-educated, and that the punishment he suffered was relatively light by contemporary American standards. Nor could I feel anything at all for the girl whose efforts to atone for these accusation give the film its name, in large part because her initially interesting and lively character is replaced mid film by a zombie-like creature whose sole expression is a vacant stare. The film is redeemed from near triviality by a rather ingenious deus ex machina. Still, for me at least, it worked only as lavishly illustrated historical fiction, and not as drama.