Amazing, Astonishing, Alluring......Atonement is an artistic triumph of the highest degree

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2008)

Briony (Saoirse Ronan), a precocious thirteen year old, and young adult Cecelia (Keira Knightley) are the daughters of a wealthy, landowning family of Britain. An aspiring writer, Briony is highly observant of any and all activity surrounding her small world. One day, she happens upon her sister, not once, but twice, in a romantic encounter with Robbie (James McAvoy). Robbie is the son of a household staff member (Brenda Blethyn) and has worked on the gardens of the estate but he has also been educated by the family's patriarch. He is an intelligent and handsome man, with a good heart. However, Briony also has a crush on Robbie and her jealousy sets off a tragic state of affairs. When two young male cousins of the girls, dropped off at the mansion by divorcing parents, decide to "run away", the entire household searches for them in the dark of night. When Briony, flashlight in hand, stumbles across a man assaulting the young cousins' sister, she decides to tell the police that Robbie is the rapist. It is categorically untrue but, alas, Robbie is sent to jail. Five years later, Robbie is let out of prison to become a soldier for Britian in World War I and Cecelia, too, runs away from her family to work as a military nurse. The couple, still greatly in love, meet briefly but make plans to be together forever, when the war is over. Briony, too, enlists as a nurse and tries to contact her sister to ask for forgiveness and to make amends. But, can anything atone for the ruination of two lives? This is a movie of astonishing, tragic beauty. The principal actors, Knightley, Ronan, Blethyn, McAvoy, Vanessa Redgrave, and others are all superlative, giving it their all as the doomed, complex characters. Equally beautiful are the costumes, the settings, and the cinematography, for it would hard to find a more breathtakingly sumptuous film. Yet, even then, it is the story and the direction that should receive the most applause. This is a tale of woe on an epic scale, very intricate and very unsettling. More importantly, the direction is amazing, with happenings often told twice, from different perspectives, with seamless and subtle integration. The result is a work of art of the highest degree, deserving of infinite praise. In short, do not miss Atonement. It can send any serious film viewer into a rapturous state of mind.