10/10

Rating: 10/10 (9 September 2007)

Its not often that you can go to the cinema and use the word "beautiful" to describe a film, but in this case the word "beautiful" does not do Atonement justice.
The story follows a young teen named Briony played very well by Saoise Ronan, who witnesses her older sister Cecilia (Kiera Knightly) and gardener Robbie, whom she has a crush on (James McAvoy as close as he will ever get to an Oscar) making love in the library. After this she sees her cousin Lola being attacked in the garden and as a childish act of revenge, not fully realising the seriousness of her actions lies to the police and frames Robbie.
The story jumps on a few years and we see Robbie conscripted to the army and Cecilia, who has now left her family working as a nurse in London and a now grown up Briony training as a nurse trying to atone for the damage that she has caused.
I had not read the book before going to see the film and for the first time ever I am glad that I did not. There is an unexpected twist at the end of the movie that is absolutely devastating as we do not get the ending that we are accustomed to and if you become as engrossed as I was there will in all likelihood be tears.
The film is shot to perfection by Joe Wright, who now will be officially known as the director that made Kiera Knightly grow up and shake of the awful Pirates movies.
Every shot is just gorgeous to look at.
There is one long scene showing the evacuation at Dunkirk which on its own deserves an Oscar. It was not like usual war time scenes, all patriotic and noisy. I was very quiet apart from a group of soldiers singing in an old band stand. It is a very poignant scene and will be remembered for a long time to come.
This film is a shoe in for at least a couple of Oscars, and for once a film in the Oscar hunt has managed to quietly show its worth without any desperate Will Smith "give me a Oscar please" performances. James McAvoy and especially the young Saoise Ronan deserve at least a nomination.
I would honestly give this film a 10/10. It is hard to pick a fault in one of the best films of the year.