Beautiful and imaginative

Rating: 9/10 (28 January 2008)

I have been looking forward to seeing Atonement for a while, I like a lot of different period pieces and this looked like a great one. Then the awards have been coming to it, unfortunately, it didn't come to my town for a while, until recently and my mom and I finally saw Atonement today and we both loved it. It has such a beautiful love story, lovely costumes, incredible scenery, and wonderful actors. Keira Knightly has just come such a long way these past few years and she's becoming a wonderful actress, she was the perfect choice for Cecille. James McAvoy, this is the first film I have seen him in, I know he's a rising star and from this movie I can see why, he has the perfect charm that lights up a screen. These two actors clicked so well together and were lovely. Romola Garai as the older Briony was the perfect choice as well, she brought almost a sense of sympathy for her character, an understanding. The entire cast brought this wonderful story to life.
Briony is a thirteen year old girl in the 1930's, she has quite the imagination, she writes plays and stories. She also has an older sister, Cecille, who is more loved in some ways, especially by Briony's crush, Robbie. Robbie and Cecille fall in love, but when Robbie gives Briony the wrong letter to give to Cecille that has explicit sexual language, Cecille becomes more angry when she catches Robbie and Cecille together making love. Later that night, Briony sees her cousin being raped by a man and accuses Robbie of it, Robbie goes to prison and eventually fights in WWII. Robbie and Cecille to find each other again years later and promise each other to live happily ever after. But Robbie must fight in the war once again. Briony is now a WWII nurse and is living with the guilty conscience of accusing an innocent man of a hideous crime, she riped the love of her sister's life right out of her hands and now she must tell the truth, even if it is too late.
Atonement is one of the best films of 2007. It was very interestingly made, it has a strange time sequence. But I think from what I know, is that Atonement is a long book, so they probably had to chop a lot of the story up into two hours. But don't worry, the story is easy to follow throughout the film. My mom and I couldn't get over the sets and the costumes, they were absolutely stunning and we're hoping the awards go to Atonement for best costume. Atonement is a beautiful story of love, sisterhood, friendship, betrayal, and imagination, it's a terrific film. It's a film not to be missed, I'm in a big bind now where I'm not sure what film to root for best picture, because Atonement is going to be a good classic in a few years.
9/10