An excellent turn from all involved.

Rating: 10/10 (28 January 2008)

Like so many of the best films of 2007, "Atonement" does not see wide distribution until 2008, owing to the practise of holding back the so-called Oscar-bait movies until limited release in December, to meet the Academy's deadlines while keeping the movies in the minds of voters. And so, at January's end, I finally got to see the new film adaptation of Graham McEwan's novel "Atonement" (I have not read the novel).
The story follows Cecilia and Briony Tallis, two sisters from an upper class family in interwar England, and Robbie, their groundskeeper who has also been patronized by their father, and gone on to some education. The opening segment (covering perhaps the first hour) is set in 1935, and shows how Cecilia and Robbie's burgeoning relationship becomes the victim of a lie told by Briony, who does not understand what she sees, and how her own feelings cause her to act. The next segment, set in 1940 on the eve of the 'miracle of Dunkirk', depicts the fallout of this lie, as Briony, now a young woman, tries to make up for what she has done. Finally, there is an epilogue set in the present day, where the question of Briony's atonement is examined at the end of her life.
Briony, the central character, is played by three different actresses in the course of the film: first, Saoirse Ronan as a 13-year-old girl; by Romola Garai as an 18-year-old; and by acting legend Vanessa Redgrave as an old woman. All three actresses are fantastic; most of the critical acclaim, including an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, has accrued to Ronan as the young Briony, and she would be a worthy recipient of the award. Keira Knightley, the big name in the cast (re-teaming with Joe Wright, her director on "Pride & Prejudice", one of my favourite recent films), is impressive, and develops good chemistry with James McAvoy as Robbie. Also present in a minor role is the great Brenda Blethyn (also of "Pride & Prejudice").
The most talked-about scene in the film is the depiction of the beaches of Dunkirk in the days of the evacuation. The five-minute continuous tracking shot of soldiers walking through the chaos has already become famous; there is tremendous poetry in Wright's visuals, as the music of singing soldiers swells, abandoned Ferris wheels absently turn, and horses are shot for lack of food and transport.
The conclusion of the film is remarkably powerful, aborting the expectations of a traditional Hollywood period drama; sins, it seems, cannot always be made up for like in the movies. There is also the question raised of whether fiction can/should be used in the way Briony ends up using it, and whether she is simply continuing to deceive herself at the end of her life. This is by no means a happy film, and some unaware viewers expecting a companion piece to Knightley and Wright's "Pride & Prejudice" should look elsewhere; but for an adult tragedy, this production has few compeers this year.