It's Hard to Forgive Yourself

Rating: 8/10 (2 February 2008)

Probably the best romantic movie of 2007, this is very much Brimley's story as portrayed by three actresses, child, young adult and elderly women. Even the scenes where she's not in it, it's her imagination as what transgressed between James McAvoy's and Keira Knightly's characters.
Brimley is a writer, established immediately in the first scene. Even the opening credits are in courier font and the "music" is typewriter noises. Brimley has written a play that her guests, a red head and twins are very reluctant to participate in. She looks out the window and sees her older sister disrobe herself in front of a handsome man and jump in the deep fountain. Moments later, she comes out and puts her outer garments on over her wet undergarments and Brimley's curiosity is completely buzzed as to what actually happened.
With a nod to Kurosawa, the action is repeated but this time with only McAvoy and Knightly present. This must be said here that they make a very lovely couple. There are other characters, a brother who's hardly in the movie and his friend who does the nasty with the red-hair that McAvoy will be falsely accused of. That fact doesn't get revealed right away because the second act is not told chronologically.
Just when you thought everything is all explained, fast forward to when Brimley is an established novelist, being interviewed for her twenty-first novel that she reveals whose atonement this really is.
Because the main character is a third person seeing the love story, there's a bit disengagement to the doomed couple. We know McAvoy couldn't have done the rape because he simply did not have the time. He was too busy bringing back the twins. He must have had a lousy lawyer because to jail he went and the redhead remained silent.
But overall, a very enjoyable movie. Great dialog, scenery and performances all around.