Somewhat disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (9 March 2008)

Despite the critical accolades and awards, I found this movie quite disappointing. Based on a novel by Ian McEwan, and directed by Joe Wright (who had filmed the latest movie version of Pride and Prejudice, much inferior to the BBC miniseries), the bulk of the movie occurs in a British country house during one day in the mid 1930s, in which a crime might have happened of might have just been the figment of the imagination of a fevered child. The main characters will feel for years the consequences of what happened that day. Since I'm totally uninterested on the life of England's upper classes, I was quite bored during a lot of the movie. And as if that wasn't enough, the final twist of the movie (in which Vanessa Redgrave has a cameo role) is totally insulting, and makes the viewer feels cheated. The engaging presence of Keira Knightley and newcomer Saoirse Ronan are among the movie's few assets. On the other hand, the much praised scene set during the evacuation at Dunkirk is very show-offy in my opinion.