Lopsided

Rating: 5/10 (5 June 2013)

Atonement starts off with a rather interesting and intriguing first part, even though it is a bit long at times. The choice of proposing two different points of view successively for each scene also turns out to be quite heavy and not the most judicious.
Then, when the story moves to the WWII, the movie immediately takes a really more boring turn since the initial plot is completely stuck. A quarter of the film is devoted to showing us Robbie on the front, alternating with souvenirs and flashbacks.
Then, comes the last part punctuated with an absurd twist that discredits the scenario, not to mention the incredibly useless last scene.
Atonement therefore clearly lacks coherence and the association of those three parts turns out to be extremely lopsided. If the cinematography is very good, the actors are very bland, especially Keira Knightley who only seems to have one expression in her repertoire.