I did not see what everyone else seemed to see.

Rating: 5/10 (6 February 2008)

I found "Atonement" not to be the same movie everyone is "ga-ga" over. I must have missed something that they saw in this movie. Maybe those who read the book had a better understanding of its characters. I thought the beginning of the movie to about maybe half way through was very good. It was filmed so we could see what Broiny (Saoirse Ronan) saw, then what actually happened. The movie flip-flopped in time to accomplish this, it was a bit confusing at first. Once we realize that this is what's happening, you just follow along. Once the situation is out in the open, the movie then asks us to be concerned for its characters, but we don't know them. All we have seen is that the truth has been twisted. All I felt about it was I couldn't believe all the adults believed the child above everyone else. No one asked why she believed as she did, that most was taken out of context. Why wasn't Kiera Knightly's character more influential in stating the true character of "Robbie" than a teenager? I didn't know Ceceila (Kiera Knightly) or Robbie (James McAvoy) enough to truly feel anything. We had no idea what the relationship between Ceciela and Broiny was, did they battle each other for attention? Were they jealous of one another? or were they very close? Not enough to involve me. It struck me that Broiny's love for the written word did not propel her to seek to have the ones in the letter better explained to her, to ask if Ceceila was offended by them.
The actors seemed to know their characters even if we did not, and the acting was very good. The cinematography was beautiful, perfect lighting. The clothing looked especially well done, quite to the era. The score was brilliant, inserting the typewriter into the music was very well done. If I had known more about the characters, at least enough to care about them, maybe I would feel more about the movie. I am not a fan of soap opera maybe this is the key ingredient necessary to see the awe everyone else seems to see in this movie. Maybe I went to this movie with expectations. I know for other Best Picture movies I did not find myself looking at my watch to see if it was almost over as I did with this movie. If the movie's intent was injustice, it was.