Lots of Acting

Rating: Null/10 (21 January 2008)

"There was an awful lot of acting in that movie," said my husband as we left the theatre. I know what he meant. Atonement's the kind of movie that wins awards because the relatively simple story line and lack of explosions and car chases, gives the actors a chance to string coherent words together, more than 2 or 3 at a time, and deliver them without simultaneously drawing a gun or jumping over roof tops. Not that I don't like action movies. I do. It's just nice occasionally to watch something more cerebral.
There are many things I loved about Atonement, yet still, at the end I was surprised it didn't move me more or have a bigger emotional impact on me. With such a tragic storyline, I was fully prepared for a good weep, but somehow it never fully engaged me emotionally. I'm still trying to decide quite why.
The cast was certainly excellent. Keira Knightley (Cecilia) is not only gorgeous to look at for extended periods of time on screen, but she's very effective portraying Cecilia, the eldest daughter of an upper crust family, whiling away a long, hot, sultry summer in a country house just before World War 2, when Britain was still in the grasp of an enervating class system. Women of her class were still required to do little at that time beyond marry well, and Cecilia is clearly bored to tears and frustrated on every level. Her clipped tones and delivery are perfect. Contrast this with Knightley's 2002 performances in Pure, or Bend it Like Beckham, and you will see just how far she has come as an actor. Four years have taken her from gangly kid to sultry sex symbol with no pit stops for rehab, and I adore her for it. James McAvoy (Robbie) seems to have come from nowhere to become a major male star in very short order, although I know in actuality he's been around a while. I've thought him excellent in every movie I've seen him in, especially The Last King of Scotland. All three actresses who play Cecilia's little sister Briony as she ages, are equally good, and all the supporting cast are very proficient.
Director Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice) creates a languid and vaguely erotic, sexually charged atmosphere between Cecilia and Robbie, a couple who are wildly attracted to each other but separated by the artificial barrier of class. He contrasts Robbie - bright, well educated and stifled by his humble origins - with the crass, upper class twitishness of Cecilia's brother Leon and his unpleasant friend Paul. Cecilia and Robbie cross paths repeatedly, trying to ignore their obvious mutual attraction. This is a classic example of how to create sexual energy and tension on screen with very little actual physical contact, before the fateful library scene. But when they do finally come together they sizzle, positively setting the screen on fire for a few brief moments before fate, in the shape of nosey Briony, intervenes. It's hard to define chemistry in a couple on screen, you just know it when you see it. These two have it in bucket loads.
Wrongly accused of a sexual assault, Robbie is dragged off to prison, and the summer idyll comes to an abrupt end, not just for the protagonists but for the whole country, as WW2 looms ahead. Four years later Robbie is in the army, stranded at Dunkirk and Cecilia has become the efficient ward sister of a London hospital. Briony, also a nurse, wants to make amends for the terrible accusations she made which put Robbie in jail. But the past can never be undone.
Much has been written about the Dunkirk beach scene, so I won't repeat it except to say that it is cleverly filmed but looked a little too much like a graphic novel storyboard at times. The cinematography of the whole movie is beautiful, as it was in Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice in 2005. He has a real feel for the beauty of old British country estates, and he certainly showcases Knightley at her very best. Yes, that dress is stunning.
Yet I felt the movie lost emotional impact by showing us the various real and fictional endings (fictional as imagined by an adult Briony, now a novelist.) In that respect it reminded me of The French Lieutenant's Woman. This is almost an attempt to be too cerebral, and it comes at the expense of emotional involvement. Which is a pity. There is still a place in cinema for the unabashed representation of love, whether thwarted as this is, or fulfilled. Somehow this is just too detached. I haven't read the book so I'm willing to believe it is an accurate interpretation, but personally, I'd have simply shown the tragic ending, rather than Briony's fictional option, and left the audience to work out the 'what ifs' for themselves. It would have left at least this audience member sad but more satisfied.