"Extraordinary" is one such term that utterly goes with this British Cinema finesse

Rating: 10/10 (14 April 2017)

You know the book. If you use public transport, you'll recognise it as the one everyone was reading circa 2004. There was that Booker Prize shortlisting, the reams of laudatory articles about its author, Ian McEwan. And then arrived the inevitable film adaptation, which should by rights be as stilted and anaemic an affair as most big-screen versions of 'serious' fiction, a (Merchant) ivory tower of self-important emoting from RSC heavyweights. Except that this quality-drenched effort is as stilted as a belly-dancer.
The movie's opening act is like a breathless celebration of pure heedless joy, a demonstration of the theory that the pinnacle of human happiness was reached by life in an English country house between the wars. Of course that was more true of those upstairs than downstairs. We meet Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley), the bold, older daughter of an old family, and Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), their housekeeper's promising son, who is an Oxford graduate, thanks to the generosity of Cecilia's father. Despite their difference in social class, they are powerfully attracted to each other, and that leads to a charged erotic episode next to a fountain on the house lawn.
There's a careful contrast between the gilded youth of Cecilia and friends, literally glowing in Seamus McGarvey's burnished cinematography, Robbie's earthier colours and Briony's cold little face, pinched with self-importance, all setting up a conflict to come.But it's the tone that sets this apart from more traditional, ever-so-slightly-fusty inter-War dramas. Mature actors barely get a look in - near-cameos from Brenda Blethyn, Gina McKee and Vanessa Redgrave aside, no-one over the age of 30 even registers.
Magical-realist underwater scenes make the stately home seem an idyll, but the oppressive heat that radiates from the screen hints at tension, sexual and otherwise, bubbling under the surface. The most erotic sex scene in years - this despite the fact that both parties remain almost fully dressed - can't ease the growing dread. Even aside from the World War glowering on the horizon, it's clear that something is about to go horribly wrong.
To say much more about the details, however, would be to risk unbalancing a plot as delicately calibrated as clockwork. If you've read the book, you know what's coming. If you haven't, count yourself lucky, and watch with your heart in your mouth as events build to a climax barely halfway through.