Suprsingly Unmoved

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2007)

The first half of the movie, set in the oppressive heat and isolation of an English country estate, is perfect. The over-elaborate wallpapers, the richly carved woodwork, the overgrown garden grottoes and the still ponds create an atmosphere of ripe foreboding.
The second half of the movie, however, set five years later is extremely disappointing after such a powerhouse opening. I, for one, was waiting for the big twist, the surprise, the payoff, that every reviewer had been talking about. It never came. The first half is tightly and elaborately plotted. The second has no plot at all: Robbie and Cecilia meet for tea; Robbie wanders around northern France; Cecilia does nothing at all; and Briony washes bedpans. There's no real sense of passion or longing between the separated lovers, and if we are to believe that Briony has volunteered for such menial work as a kind of self-inflicted punishment, she bares her lot so stoically that we never get a sense that she is suffering in any way, whether physically or emotionally. The constant announcements of "three weeks later", or "six weeks earlier", unnecessarily complicating the timeline of events, has the viewer questioning the veracity of the hidden meta-'storyteller' long before the supposedly surprising last act.
The fact is that none of the plot turns, those that the Washington Post describes as "reverberate in a series of excruciating twists", come as any real surprise. The viewer knows that the moment Robbie neatly folds up his dirty little note to Cecilia that he'll mistakenly pick up the wrong one, just as we know that when he passes it into the hands of Briony she'll not resist the temptation to read it. We know that Briony, given her state of mind, will accuse Robbie, just as we know the identity of the real culprit, who has been leering at every underage girl in the vicinity for the last half hour. While being able to predict every turn of events may build a certain degree of fateful dread, it does not constitute 'excruciating twists'.
Jacqueline Durran, who created the grittily authentic costumes for 'Vera Drake', does an equally stellar job here. With Sarah Greenwood (production design) and Seamus McGarvey (cinematography), the three of them effortlessly recreate the world these characters life in, able to bring something fresh and original to settings that have been recreated a thousand times in movies over the years. The entire production is of the highest quality and the performances are universally excellent. But for me at least, the narrative was predictable and the story lacking in real passion or tragedy.