The Art Of Adaptation.

Rating: 6/10 (22 March 2008)

"Atonement" and "No Country for Old Men", the film that beat it out for the "Best Picture Oscar", are both based on Novels with unique and non-linear narrative structures which probably play out more coherently on the page. In the DVD special features for "Atonement" the director reveals that the initial script (which was discarded when he came on board) apparently made some effort to adapt the plot's jumbled chronologies and blending of memory and fantasy into a more "cinematic" conventional narrative...I, for one, wish that script had been given a chance.
I have NOT read either novel. I do NOT enjoy the feeling that a film needs the commitment of several hours of "homework" reading the literary work it is based on before it even BEGINS to make sense. I felt the "Rashomon like "multiple" points of view used here came off as forced and arch as the off-screen climax in "No Country". No amount of ravishing photography, souped up music, lavish costumes, or impassioned acting is going to be able to surmount a garbled and annoying script.
I wanted to like this movie. I admire the cast, and the skill of the technical crew that backed them up.
But in the end my final reaction was "They brought in Vanessa Redgrave for five minutes and expected her to be able to sew it all together."
Unfortunately, not even her absolute brilliance can work THAT kind of miracle.
It later came to me that maybe working her in at the very beginning...looking back...so that the uninitiated in the audience have SOME inkling of what MAY be going on MIGHT have helped...
Oh well... at least I enjoyed "Juno".