A mischievous girl accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.

Rating: 8/10 (4 July 2010)

The film is ambitious, terrifically acted, moving and for the most part transcends its status as a historical drama. On a hot summer's day in the 1930s in the grounds of an English manor house, Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a budding author aged 13, tells a damaging lie about Robbie (James McAvoy), the lover of her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley). The lie changes all their lives, with consequences that extend beyond World War II.
This remarkably lavish, visually ravishing film does full justice to Ian McEwan's brilliant, detailed source novel. Director Joe Wright skilfully evokes the atmosphere of languid lust in the first act, and surpasses himself with a nightmarish evocation of the chaos and misery on the beach at Dunkirk, brought to life in a single five-minute tracking shot. A short triumphant coda with Vanessa Redgrave as an older, successful Briony, voicing her regrets, confirms Atonement as a rarity: a sumptuous spectacle with vast reserves of intelligence. Dario Marianelli's lush, romantic score includes a theme featuring the tapping of typewriter keys, a reminder that this is a story about storytelling.