Atonement the Most Overrated Film Since Crash (spoilers)

Rating: 3/10 (13 December 2007)

2005's "Pride and Prejudice" is a work of genius. 2007's "Atonement," however, is the follow-up project where no one has the guts to tell the director to cut 40 minutes out of this pretentious, meandering, utterly contrived bait-and-switch. Every hackneyed film-school trick is employed in this "English Patient"-meets-"Roshamon"-meets-"Jacob's Ladder"-meets-"Manon des Sources" bore. It even uses the "have your seemingly raw ending but then make sure everyone leaves the theatre with an utterly unmotivated bittersweet smile" device they topped off that abomination "Titanic" with. Excellent actors and photography cannot save this fundamentally flawed storyline.