admirable attempt at filming a novel about writing but ultimately disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (8 September 2007)

I taught Ian McEwan's novel as part of university courses in contemporary British fiction, so I felt differently about the film than my husband did -- my husband saw the movie without having read the book. I think "Atonement" is a valid and admirable attempt at filming a novel about writing. The use of the sounds of typewriter keys strongly conveyed Briony's development as a writer and the power of her testimony to destroy, the power of Robbie's passion to move Cecilia and shock Briony and her family's world, and the power of the mature Briony to enable Robbie and Cecilia to have in fiction the happiness that they could not have in life. My husband debated with me whether Briony's fiction can really give her sister and friend the life that her testimony took away from them, or whether the atonement is only in Briony's mind. The cinematography is excellent and the acting is superb: until I saw the credits I believed the 18 year old Briony was played by the same actress as the 13 year old Briony. However, the ending and the mature Briony's admission that she invented scenes in her supposed true account are unconvincing. Briony's interior life and her realization that other people are as alive and important as herself are not shown on screen. The shifts in time may be confusing for those who are unfamiliar with the novel. Both my husband and I found the movie slow and some of the scenes overlong, especially the scenes of Dunkirk. I wondered if the director lingered on them to show off the expensive shots of the thousands of extras. Ultimately it may be impossible to portray in a film many of the aspects of McEwan's novel, especially Briony's stories suggesting not only her own moral and professional growth but the growth of fiction throughout the last century. "Atonement" keeps most of the spirit of McEwan's novel until the closing scenes. Aside from the hurried coda, we both thought it was too sentimental and clichéd not only to close with a sequence of Robbie and Cecilia frolicking on the beach in front of the cottage they never shared in true life, but to set the cottage in front of the white cliffs of Dover.