Epic Sweep and Complex Character Arcs Bring Ian McEwan's Masterful Novel to Cinematic Life

Rating: 8/10 (21 March 2008)

Cineastes will recognize the shadowy figure interviewing the elderly Briony at the end of this sumptuously produced 2007 film as director Anthony Minghella, who tragically passed away earlier this week. One can surmise that director Joe Wright's use of the estimable filmmaker for a well-placed cameo is something of a tribute to Minghella's work on similarly grandiose epics like "The English Patient". Minghella would have been an ideal director for Ian McEwan's emotionally complex 2002 novel, as would have been David Lean since the film concurrently evokes the sweep of "Doctor Zhivago" and the intimacy of "Brief Encounter" (especially in the wartime tearoom scene). Regardless, Wright does an admirable job in translating what is essentially an interior story into something quite cinematic. Much of the film's measured success has to do with his and screenwriter Christopher Hampton's abiding fidelity to McEwan's time-juggling story structure.
The story is actually divided into two discrete parts. The first takes place on an inauspicious summer day at a rolling English estate in 1935 as precocious 13-year-old Briony Tallis writes a play for the children to perform at a dinner party that evening. She idolizes her beautiful older sister Cecilia and harbors a crush on the housekeeper's impassioned son Robbie Turner. When she sees the two together at the garden fountain, she presumes a situation more provocative than what really occurred. Later that evening, Briony makes a false accusation, and Robbie ends up wrongly accused of a crime and sent off to prison. The second part takes place five years later as Europe is engulfed in WWII. Robbie has moved from prisoner to foot soldier in France, aching over Cecilia while trying to get to Dunkirk in order to return to England. Cecilia has become a nurse, as has a now-grown Briony regretfully estranged from her sister. Where the story goes from there is startling and moving in ways that are quite unexpected.
I'm rather divided on the performances. As the headstrong Cecilia, Keira Knightley evokes old-school glamour with her coltish beauty in an impactful manner reminiscent of a young Katharine Hepburn, but her character dissipates somewhat as the story progresses. James McAvoy captures the boyish magnetism of Robbie while gaining gravitas as his idealized character faces the fatalistic horror of war head on. Together though, Knightley and McAvoy somehow just miss creating the image of enduring passion necessary to carry the core story. On the other hand, Briony allows three superb actresses to seamlessly show the character's evolving fate. As the adolescent, Saoirse Ronan dominates the first third of the film with searing self-possession. She makes us care about Briony despite her repugnant act of self-interest. Romola Garai takes over as a young, uncertain nurse caring for badly maimed soldiers in a London hospital. Finally, Vanessa Redgrave carries the last scene by providing the denouement with her characteristic authority and giving the title its true meaning.
All the production values are stunning  Sarah Greenwood's meticulous production design, especially in the Dunkirk scenes; Jacqueline Durran's simply designed period costumes; Dario Marianelli's stirring music score (with an effective if somewhat excessive use of typewriter keys to punctuate key scenes) and Seamus McGarvey's rich cinematography. Pay particular attention to the uninterrupted five-minute tracking shot at Dunkirk done with a Steadicam, a bravura set piece along the lines of the opening scene in Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil". The 2008 DVD has a fairly standard set of extras for such an elaborate production - an informative commentary track from Wright; a comprehensive, half-hour making-of documentary, "Bringing the Past to Life: The Making of 'Atonement'"; a five-minute short, "From Novel to Screen: Adapting a Classic", in which Wright, Hampton and McEwan discuss the transition on a cursory level; and seven deleted scenes, about eight minutes in total with optional commentary from Wright.