They DO still make 'em like that.

Rating: 9/10 (29 March 2008)

Joe Wright's second feature film (after 2005's Pride & Prejudice) has its leading lady in common with his first and this, unfortunately, is my main bone of contention with his, otherwise magnificent, movie. For me, at least, her clipped English accent is unconvincing and contrived. In interviews she has herself stated that she enjoyed the reversion to a 30's/40's-style of acting and, in particular, the Brief Encounteresque bullet-like speech patterns but this is so affected that it's borderline parody. I'm not a fan of the wartime posh English accent at the best of times and it has put me off many an adaptation of a classic children's book (stand up Chronicles Of Narnia)- but for a modern lesson in 'how to', Ms Knightly could have done a lot worse (and she did) than to study Kristin Scott Thomas' performance in The English Patient. James McAvoy's accent also seems a little confused but, as his character is a social climber, we can let that one slide.
I am not obsessed with accents, by the way, I just think that the casting of these two of-the-moment actors was a mistake. Clearly not as far as the box office and press/public interest were concerned, but just in terms of authenticity. Keira Marmite-of-the-British-film-industry Knightly's appeal has always been a mystery to me but I have long been a fan of James McAvoy's work - which makes it all the more disappointing to see him miscast here. His performance is not without its merits and it utilises two of his best talents as an actor - working with children and crying - but the script, at times, insists on him (and Knightly) spouting the kind of contrived, wannabe-classic dialogue that only ever sounds good on trailers.
What makes these two performances all the more grating is that every other character is played spot on. Saoirse Ronan (pronounced SER-SHA, apparently) is a revelation as the young Briony and I was shocked to discover that she's Ameican/Irish - her accent's better than Keira Knightly's for gawd's sake. A special mention should also go to the criminally overlooked Romola Garai as the 'middle' Briony. Her role is critical in understanding the guilt and torment that leads to the film's title - and all of this she conveys with eyes and expression alone (now THAT'S acting, Keira).
Atonement the movie, though, is bigger than the sum of its acted parts and so a little hammy delivery of melodramatic dialogue can be forgiven - and some might even welcome it from an epic of this stature (Gone With The Wind would have been forgotten by now without it). Joe Wright's direction is confident, authentic, sympathetic and quite beautiful. Even the obligatory extended tracking shot (here of soldiers awaiting evacuation on the beach at Dunkirk) is so effective that you almost forget about the artistic contrivance of such a lengthy take. Seamus McGarvey's cinematography too is excellent - from the muggy sunlight of the film's first chapter (you can almost feel Keira Knightly's dress sticking to her as she tries to cool off on the damp grass) to the incessant fog of war in the second. The score by Dario Marianelli brings to mind Philip Glass' work on The Hours with its economical yet memorable melody lines, sparse piano/string arrangement and evocation of melancholy (interesting that Joe Wright chose to use that film's cinematographer here) but is given a sense of urgency by the use of a typewriter as a driving rhythm section. At first this grated and felt a bit like "okay, we get it - this whole story pivots on the use of the written (typed) word" but I grew to appreciate its effectiveness and even enjoy its punchy punctuation. Christopher Hampton (perhaps best known for his excellent English-language adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses for stage and screen) has written a decent script - those trailer-friendly lines aside - that works particularly well both in establishing the characters and their motivations at the beginning of the film and at the end, where Vanessa Redgrave delivers (in the guise of a TV interview) an effective speech-cum-summation which, in the hands of a lesser writer, might have felt clunky and overstated.
This film is something of a modern classic - certainly more English Patient than Pearl Harbour - and Mr Wright has every right to feel proud of his achievement. I eagerly anticipate the release of his next film The Soloist - not least because it doesn't feature any Marmite. I hate Marmite.