Writers lie to us

Rating: 8/10 (26 April 2008)

I read the novel before seeing the movie so I knew what I was going to see. Ian MacEwan's book is about how writers always cheat. You really should know that going in because I think a lot of people expected "Ryan's Daughter" or some other sweeping historical romance that may end tragically, but movingly. The ending of "Atonement" is not tragic. It is absurd.
In a way, the movie ending copped out. The book ended with an internal monologue by Briony at her own crowded, happy birthday party. The book reveals her own pretensions to have given Robbie and Cecelie "a life together" when in fact she really just wrote a happy ending to alleviate her own guilt. It's pathetic and shows how Briony is still the selfish brat she always was. And there was no final scene on the beach in the book. The book is deeply, deeply bitter. It's wrong to slap on a fantasy-on-the-beach ending.
Still, most of the movie was captivating, what with the masterful tracking shot, the musical typewriter. The suburban American audience I saw it with gasped out loud when they saw Robbie's typewriter slam out the most taboo word in the English language. David Lean "Atonement" is not.
Ian MacEwan writes fairly transgressive fiction. Too bad the filmmakers weren't willing to go the distance.