A fine adaptation of a novel about guilt

Rating: 9/10 (6 January 2008)

This is a very atmospheric adaptation of Ian McEwan's very moody and powerful novel, set in an upper-class English household of the 1930s and in the England of the early war years. There are various ways of atoning for deeds we regret, and in the book, writing becomes atonement. Briony Tallis, at 13 makes a mistake affecting two people close to her which haunts her for the rest of her long life. One of them is Robbie the son of the family's housekeeper, who has been given an Oxford education by the family, and the other is her older sister Cecilia who is in love with Robbie.
Briony, who probably has a pubescent crush on Robbie, falsely accuses Robbie of sexual assault on Lola, a visiting cousin, and as a result Robbie is sent to prison. Five years later, in London during the early part of the Second World War, Briony tries to atone for her wrong. It is not at all clear whether Briony acted maliciously, but she feels guilty about it (it has destroyed her relationship with her sister) and that is sufficient.
As the book gives alternative views of what has happened, the film makers have had to do the same, and have done so rather neatly, in a way which does not interrupt the narrative. This is easy in prose, but not so easy on film. They have also done a mini Spielberg re-creation of the evacuation of Dunkirk, which evokes the desperation of the event beautifully. Dunkirk was no triumph, merely a total disaster averted. The hospital scenes are grim testament to the losses the allies suffered. But this is a very personal story. Briony goes on to be a successful author, and it is only in the final scenes we find out how she has assuaged her sense of guilt. Here the film departs from the book, Briony (Venessa Redgrave) telling all in a TV interview rather than attending a birthday party put on for her by her family. The book somehow completes the cycle of Briony's life in a way the film does not.
There is some staggeringly good acting here by all the actors playing Briony, Saiorse Ronan (who was only 12 at the time), Romola Garai, and last but not least Vanessa Redgrave. James McAvoy as Robbie and Keira Knightly as Cecilia also put in good performances though Keira's voice coach should be sacked  she was allowed to speak far too fast. The large ugly mansion used as the Tallis house, Stokesay Court in Shropshire, leaped straight from the pages of the novel, and the love scenes between Robbie and Cecilia were both tasteful and erotic.
If we do have to have adaptations of highly literary works like this one, we can be thankful that here the spirit of the story is still present. I don't think McEwan writes with the screen in mind, though he wrote a brilliant screenplay for "The Ploughman's Lunch" 25 years ago. He (and we) are lucky that the film makers here had some idea as to what he was on about.