Almost as good as it gets

Rating: Null/10 (10 September 2007)

It is such a rarity, but such a delight, when an accomplished novel is successfully transcribed to the screen. I was enormously impressed by the exquisite prose of Ian McEwan's work "Atonement" and anxious about how it would fare as a movie, but the result is a triumph. Director 35 year old Joe Wright - whose only previous direction was the most enjoyable "Pride And Prejudice" - and screenwriter Christopher Hampton (helped by cinematographer Seamus McGarvey) have crafted a fine adaption which is faithful to the novel but makes impressive use of the film medium to give us a new insight into the work.
At one level, this is an achingly poignant love story centred on the upper class Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley in one of her best performances to date in a role where her thinness is actually appropriate) and the son of the family's cleaning women Robbie Turner (James McAvoy in a richly textured offering with no hint of his natural Scottish brogue). But, at an another (deeper) level, this is a narrative of betrayal and atonement by Cecilia's younger sister Briony - played successively by Saoirse Ronan as the pubescent and overly-dramatic 13 year old, by Romola Garai as the tortured 18 year old, and by screen legend Vanessa Redgrave as the 77 year old author.
No film can replicate or emulate the prose of a novel but "Atonement" the movie scores in other ways: an incessant and insistent typewriter-laden score, detailed invocation of period clothing and settings, repetition of crucial scenes from different viewpoints, a sharper, clearer and more emotional ending, and - above all - a stunning, lengthy steadicam shot of the hell on earth beach scene at Dunkirk. This is almost as good as cinema gets.