Not a romance, not a class-conflict film, not a war movie.

Rating: 10/10 (12 July 2017)

if it wasn't for the upcoming Dunkirk movie by Christopher Nolan, and if I didn't come the single-take shot, I probably would never see this film. I've never been interested in Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenina or so-to-say pink novels adapted in film at all, although I did come across "The Soloist" by the same director, Joe Wright, which I liked but didn't have a lasting impact on me.
It is difficult to review this particular title. It is absolutely not a war movie, at least in my view, the sheer lenght of the sentimental relationship between McAvoy and Knightley's character prevents it from being a romance, the specific premise to which things are set in motion doesn't let it being a class-conflict centered story, although subthemes constantly pop up. It is to note that the class-conflict aspect of the film is mostly very subtle, particularly in relation to how that event which acts as premise to the plot is being dealt with by the aristocratic family of Knightley's character. Certain aspects reminded me of stage drama tragedies.
The title has much been criticized: how's the ending an Atonement at all? In my interpretation, it is a certain character's whole existence, with her being always thorn by the acts she did or omitted to do, that acts as a sort of "atonement", an attempt to somehow even out things between her and the other characters' relationships.
I would like to keep the plot as much as under wraps. I'd like to point out that, until the last 10 minutes, I kept trying to ignore as much as possible an aspect of the plot I found idiotic (why a certain character didn't simply just withdraw its statement?). It was those final minutes that provided an explanation which simply brought back things to be logical.
That said, the film is clever. Constant time-jumps and very subtle implications suggest some of the smartest portions of the plot. Don't expect Nolan-leveled complexity though.
Technically, again, the photography is outstanding, in nearly the entire film. Certainly, the peak is the 5+ minutes Dunkirk single take sequence, but really it is needless and too long to list every single outstanding shot the film had.
2008 was a year packed with too many good films that prevented Atonement from winning more Oscars. That said, Atonement deserves the acclaim it receives.