A great cast and some well-written characters are crippled by a weak script, a prolonged runtime, and an egotistical director

Rating: 4/10 (7 August 2014)

I was thoroughly unimpressed with this movie. Full disclaimer: I have not read the book, so this review is based entirely on my experience with the film. My rating of this film may be a bit on the harsh side, as this film has many merits to it. I believe however, that it failed overall as a FILM. It did not entertain, it did not entice, it did not pull on my emotions, and it did not hold me in suspense. It did have me throwing my hands up in frustration at the constant Oscar-begging and pseudo-bohemian attempts to impress the viewer.
Firstly, the merits. The acting was superb. Kiera Knightly was impeccable as the melancholy, disinterested, and later downright morose older sister. A young Saoirse Ronan showed us all that she does indeed have acting chops despite later, less impressive performances in her career. Of course James McAvoy was wonderful as the victim, particularly in the sequence in which he writes and then hands "the letter" to Briony. The cinematography was also excellent. The use of color to convey the change in mood throughout the film was well done, and of course there was what may very well be one of the most expensive shots in cinema, which I will come back to later.
Despite these wonderful aspects, the film just had far too many problems to merit a positive, or even average, score. First off, the extraneous scenes. This movie had so many useless scenes. The aforementioned expensive shot, of the Dunkirk evacuation, was for the most part pointless. In fact a very large portion of the not-insignificant time spent on Robbie in the war was useless, as far as the story being told. It conveyed the horrors of war, yes, but why was it in this film? This was not a war movie. This was a story about a woman and her struggle with the guilt of a lie she told that reverberated throughout the subsequent decades. Robbie never even mentions the war during his albeit ultimately fictional rant against Briony. He does, however, mention his time in jail. Which we never see. Would his time in jail not have sufficed? Could he not have died in jail? Or could it not have taken five minutes instead of a half hour to show his death at war so we could get some more Briony character progression?
While I am on the topic of extraneous material, let's talk about the constant duplication of scenes. We see Briony's point of view, and then we see Robbie's. Aside from the vase breaking, what did we glean from these drawn out scenes? Particularly the scene in which we watch the film in reverse for a prolonged amount of time. I am all for unconventional or slow-moving film styles, as long as they have a POINT. As long as they contribute more to the film than another, more captivating style. I did not feel as though these scenes meshed with the plot, or the mood the film was going for.
All of these extraneous scenes are the cause of the largest problem this film suffers from. For the subject of the film, Briony's character gets a paltry amount of screen time. I wanted to see her development, her struggle with the tremendous guilt she felt. I did not get this, unfortunately. I got quick excerpts from her life, enough to see her current state, but not enough to relate to the character, and empathize with her.
The plot had some unfortunate hiccups as well. I cannot help but feel as though all of this could have been prevented if someone had just talked to Briony. Seriously there were so many opportunities. "Sorry that I don't love you Briony but you're twelve, also this is totally consensual between your sister and I." I couldn't help but feel as though the people in the story had to act out of character just so that the plot could move forward, which to me signals poor screen writing. Another note about the plot - if a man is in a movie that is even remotely linked to WWII, and he goes to war, and there is a girl waiting for him, he is almost certainly going to die. This is a frustrating trope. I know that WWII was horrendous and many lost their lives, but when you can see it a mile away it just takes something away from the emotional devastation that is intended.
All in all, "Atonement" suffered from a poor script and a director who spent too much time patting himself on the back and not enough time focusing on the subject - and the point - of the story he was tasked to recount.