An okay film that clearly has been designed to win Oscars

Rating: 6/10 (12 January 2008)

Tragic story of a lie told and the pain and heartbreak it causes as Briony, a 13 year old girl, who sets things in motion when jealousy causes her to frame her sister's lover for a terrible act.
Well made and well acted story is exactly the sort of film that Oscar loves. Every thing in the film is pretty much picture perfect in ways that only movies can be. I was so aware of the art and artifice that I was never really engaged (even if there were a reason for it its too perfect). The early sequences among the idle rich kept me distant. I did connect to Robbie, played by James McAvoy, but he's the working class stiff in love with the bosses daughter. Keira Knightley is ravishing as Cecilia, Briony's older sister and I could feel her passion for her lover, however I began to lose patience with her performance since it often consisted of the bold acting choice of smoking a cigarette. While not as bad as Natalie Portman in Closer, I should remember the person and not the cigarette.
Not a bad film, I just don't think it scales the heights that place it among the best of the year on any level other than a technical. Honestly I should have been crying at the end instead of going being ready to move on to the next thing.
6 out of 10 for IMDb purposes 5.5 in actuality)