Really not a masterpiece

Rating: 3/10 (26 November 2013)

Although not an entirely awful film, it was not the masterpiece people I know attested to it being. There are some picturesque scenes scattered here and there, however overall the pace of the film in anything but even. The first 40 min feel like nothing has happened. It's the build up to the act that defines the rest of the film, but did it necessarily need 40 min? Briony (Ronan) decides to accuse the wrong man of a heinous crime. Why? Because she is infuriated by the fact he doesn't reciprocate the affection she has towards him? Yeah, I think that's it.... Of course no one thinks to question the words of this privileged, assuming 13 year old. The next 40min are dedicated to the lovers of the film. I say "lovers"; in fact they are separated due to the war and hardly ever meet up during this time span. Cecilia (Knightley) is the rich, spoiled and hardly likable young lady who has gone out of her way to shun the servant's son Robbie (McAvoy) until the fateful night of the crime. A sequence of event leads them to admit their feelings for one another, and a passionate moment between them ensues. A few hours later, Robbie is arrested. Cecilia leaves behind her family and their riches as a form of protest to the injustice done and in declaration of her undying love for Robb... hang on, what? Really? In the last part of the film Briony (Garai), reappears. 4-5 years older and (supposed) wiser, she is now punishing herself for her previous sin by refusing to go to Cambridge and becoming a nurse instead. It's a hard-knock life, scrubbing dirty bedpans and taking orders from the strict Orderly. I mean, oh how the mighty have fallen. Am I supposed to feel sorry for her? The thing is, I don't. Overly sentimental, it was hard to feel for anyone except, maybe, the victim Robbie. There is a sense of helplessness that lingers throughout the whole film. Knightley expands on her typical brand of "acting"; in this film she no longer limits herself to just eyebrow dances and outward jaw thrusts. She now includes a staccato-type speech pattern, to synchronize, I guess, with that annoying, perpetual typewriter sound heard throughout the whole film. Garai is just "meh" is her performance. McAvoy and Ronan, however, shine. The story ends with a statement from an older Briony (played by Vanessa Redgrave), relating to her "atonement", the pomposity of which left me flabbergasted. In summary, I could not feel for almost any of the characters in the film and as such I spent most of the time looking at my wrist watch, waiting for it to be over.