Please -- Read the Novel Instead

Rating: 3/10 (19 November 2011)

Ian McEwan's novel Atonement was beautiful: spare and elegant, surprising, thoughtful. Excellent writing, in short, like many of his novels are. So I figured a movie of Atonement would have to be at least pretty good. Oh, how wrong I was. If not for the handsome James McAvoy, I would have bailed early on. The only thing that kept me from stopping the movie and finding something better to do was remembering how much I enjoyed the book. The movie is overlong and self-consciously gorgeous, with long, ponderous shots of scenery and the skeletal Keira Knightley that serve no real purpose except to make this movie seem Merchant-Ivory like. Or something.
Along with Mr. McAvoy, Vanessa Redgrave was the highlight, although she only gets a little bit at the end; she was far and away the best actor in the film. Really, Keira Knightley -- she can't act.
All in all, I feel like this is a couple of hours of my life I'll never get back again. Do yourself a favour and read the book instead.