Lacks the nuances of the book, but still stands on its own as a film.

Rating: 6/10 (20 October 2011)

I found it difficult to decide on how to rate this movie, so I felt obligated to explain a bit the seeming mediocrity that my six stars rating conveys.
Having just finished the book, I watched "Atonement," eager to see the novel come to life. Realistically, a book of this magnitude, filled with such lush and lavishly descriptive narrative, would not fit into a two hour movie; it likely would not even fit into a five hour epic of the BBC "Pride & Prejudice" variety. That being said, I could not help feeling as though so much that made the book so remarkable was simply glanced over or not included at all in the movie. I wonder what the virgin viewer, who has not read the book, would make of the characters' depths and motives without having had the opportunity to read McEwan's nuanced character portrayals in the novel form.
That being said, I think the movie itself stands on its own rather well in spite of certain small liberties taken with the plot in order to make it a cohesive story that lasts the expected two hours. (Possible spoiler alert!) In particular, while the last setting/epilogue of the book reveals and details the lives of the characters very neatly and precisely, I must say that I appreciated the impact of the film's ending in the form of the author interview.