A Labor of Love

Rating: 8/10 (23 June 2008)

Atonement is a labor of love. Each frame of this film is crafted with patience and diligence. You can almost see the storyboard sketches that went into creating what you see on screen. There are some amazing shots which, in fact, the film could have done without while still retaining the quality that it has. But that the makers chose to work hard even on those scenes tells about their attention to detail. For instance, the scene where the Robbie (James McAvoy) is walking with his two fellow soldiers and there is a reflection of the fighter plane on the water canal.
The sequence of the army base/camp at the sea shore is amazing. It is the most elaborately designed and executed shot I have ever seen.
Besides the technical brilliance, the film rides on a very strong script and good performances. Briony Tallis' guilt is the center along which the story revolves. The love between Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Robbie is complex. The duration that their love is latent is longer than it is actually expressed. Even more longer is the period where it survives only in their memories and thoughts, with the war and the distance separating them. I guess it was the cruelties and the distress of the war, and the times, that makes them hold on to their love. Otherwise, possibly they would have moved on.
The film adopts a non-linear narration style. It repeats may sequences and events, looked at each time from a different character's perspective. This acts like a dissection of the events, making the story look complex and yet opening it up threadbare.
The ending, I felt, did not live up to the rest of the film. Briony opening up to an interviewer to tell the actual truth seemed unlike her. I wonder, if I take that ending out, what would have Briony made of her life. Would she have been consumed by her guilt completely? Would she have moved on? With this ending, I guess she did move on.
A brilliant film. One of the best I have seen this decade.