Atonement (2007)
Grade:A-
Director Joe Wright follows up his highly-praised Pride & Prejudice with another lush period piece starring Keira Knightley. This time, he’s chosen a modern classic to adapt, Ian McEwan’s widely-praised Atonement (a book that I am anxiously anticipating reading, as soon as I finish my current read). While I can’t comment on how well the book has been translated to the screen, I can say that the final film, while technically masterful, is ultimately a little hard to warm up to. Maybe it’s the fact that this film is the Surefire Best Picture Nominee (!!!!!!!) of the year, which perhaps raises my expectations too high, but I was ultimately impressed with the film, not in love with it.
The film starts in the years before World War II at the type of British mansions we’ve seen hundreds of times before, with the rich kids playing grown-up in massive rooms and the teens and twentysomethings cavorting around the grounds getting into all kinds of sexual hijinks (all very tasteful, and in pretty pretty clothes, of course) while the crusty old men chortle merrily while sipping brandy and the women flounce about in poofy dresses and speak sternly to the live-in staff. We first meet Briony (the suddenly ubiquitous Saiorse Ronan), age 13, finishing her first play and then holding rehearsals with her cousins for a performance at dinner that night. Briony’s sister Cecilia (Knightley) and the house’s gardener Robbie (James McAvoy) share an encounter by a fountain in the backyard that Briony misinterprets and proceeds to use as propusion for an escalating series of misinterpretations that eventually lead her to wrongfully accuse Robbie of a crime he clearly did not commit. He’s sent to jail, then to fight in the war.
Briony, of course, spends the rest of life trying to find atonement for her actions (and is played by Romola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave along the way).
The movie is trying to do a lot of different things here. For the first half (the world’s longest first act in the history of moviemaking, it seems, save for the entirety of a certain recent fantasy epic), this is kind of like Pride & Prejudice all over again, but once Robbie goes off to war and Briony’s actions tear Cecilia from the family, Atonement wants to be a great war film, too. There is the already famous five-minute tracking shot of Robbie exploring the shores of Dunkirk, and while it’s technically impressive, it’s ultimately for no real purpose, other than for Joe Wright to show off (and he’s been interviewed saying that this was pretty much his only reason to use such an epic long take).
That sort of empty competency applies to the rest of the film, too. Walking out of the theater, I was certainly impressed with what I had seen (the last fifteen minutes are a doozy of a finale – more on that in a little bit), but didn’t really care all that much about the characters. This film wants to be an epic, nay Epic, nay EPIC, nay EPIC!!! love story and they never really spend enough time developing the fact that Robbie and Cecilia are in love. They just show them gazing longfully a lot, making out a bit, and insisting passionately that they love each other. I never really doubted it, but I also wouldn’t have been surprised if Cecilia were to find another strapping suitor once Robbie was at war.
The film also doesn’t quite succeed as a war film, despite trying pretty damn hard to do so. There is that aforementioned long take on the shores of Dunkirk, which is visually arresting, a complete triumph of production design and sheer coordination and vision, but ultimately not in the service of anything. I never once bought that Robbie had seen any sort of combat because, well, he never does. He just walks around a lot trying to find Dunkirk so that he can get home, flashes some gaping wound on his chest a couple times so that we know he’s seen battle, and we’re supposed to take that as enough proof.
And the less said about how goddamned obtrusive Dario Marianelli’s score is, the better. We get it! Sometimes the soundtrack becomes diegetic! And the motif of a typewriter is a central one, so let’s use typewriter sounds in EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF SCORE FOR THE FILM!! Yeah!!
All that said (I know it’s sounding like I was exasperated to no end with this film), there is a lot to appreciate and even like about this film. The three actresses who play Briony are all wonderful. We knew Vanessa Redgrave would knock it out of the park, but it’s the unknown Romola Garai and Saiorse Ronan who are superb, as well. Ronan nails Briony’s childhood ignorance (and the British accent), and Garai nails the older Briony’s sheer and oppressive sense of responsibility for ruining Robbie and Cecilia’s chance at happiness.
Then there’s Vanessa Redgrave’s monologue that closes the film. It’s here that I suppose a MINOR SPOILER ALERT is necessary, but Redgrave’s portion of the film essentially serves as a giant “just kidding!” for what we just watched (not all of it, but a lot of it) that is supposed to be profound. And in a way, it is. But it’s a cheap way of achieving profundity. And god damn if they don’t achieve it about 95% of the way. Redgrave is largely responsible for this. One long uninterrupted take of a simple shot of her face as she explains her actions decades ago is all that’s needed for us to understand Briony. And Mr. Wright – it’s absolutely the right time for a long take.
If I may take a slight direction off the course of the film for a second, I want to say a bit about all the Oscar hype around this film.
I don’t get it.
This is like this year’s Dreamgirls. Remember back in January 2006 when everyone was declaring Dreamgirls the film to beat at the Oscars the following year? Before they had even started shooting?! That’s what we’ve got here. This is the kind of film that builds buzz on pedigree alone, and while it delivers technically, people seem to be glazing over the fact that the film isn’t ultimately all that successful. But, of course, I’m sure it’ll garner close to a dozen Oscar nominations when the time comes.
And I suppose there are worse films out there that have benefitted from this false buzz. Like, well, Dreamgirls, although I think people caught on that the buzz on that film turned out to just be a lot of hot air (that I’m sure accumulated from all that histrionic breathing on all those ballads). How about we try to judge a film not by what others have said or will likely say, but by what we legitimately thought about it?
Guess that’s just a pipe dream.
Original Grade: B
UPDATED UPON SECOND VIEWING:
While I still have a few issues with the film, upon a rewatch, the overall tone and aim of the film seems to be much clearer. I still think that there are some undeveloped elements like the central love story and Robbie’s war injury, but the film packed a much heavier emotional wallop this time around, even given that I knew how it would end. I would also lose the extended sequence with Briony (aged 18) and the French soldier, and I would move the Briony/Robbie flashback to when Briony mentions it in the hospital to make it a little less clunky. But overall, I found the film a lot more cohesive and, most importantly, effective.
I stand by my original comments, but much like my experience with Birth, a second viewing is sometimes enormously helpful. Still, a film should ideally stand alone as a one-time experience. It’s one thing to find a film deepen in meaning with each viewing, but as is the case here, it took two views to just get it, and that shouldn’t be necessary. Having seen it twice, though, I’m much more enthusiastic about it and can get behind the awards push it received.
Bottom Line:
All the technical aspects of Atonement are top notch, with every landscape meticulously crafted and every tracking shot and camera tilt exquisitely executed. But for a film that is supposed to be an epic love story, the filmmakers don’t really spend enough time establishing a love story for us to fully get behind and support.
UPDATED: Upon second viewing, the film plays much better than my first viewing. Things just make more sense this time around. It still has its clunky moments that don’t work all the way, but I find the whole experience much more engrossing now. And Dario Marianelli’s typewriter motifs in the score didn’t make me want to shoot someone this time! That counts for something, right?
© 2004-2009 Ben Waldorf. Posted December 19, 2007. IMDB
Fortunately I had heard nothing about Atonement before seeing it so I was able to form my own opinion w/o outside biases. I was also very impressed with the technical aspects… and I agree that they didn’t develop the love story very well. Tho that made their sex scene pretty hot ;)
P.S. I love your rant about Dreamgirls
— lean crockett Dec 21, 04:21 AM #Heyoo, I just watched this movie again and am sad that it didn’t win any Academy Awards. It was still beautiful in my eyes.
I noticed that the typewriter score appears only in scenes with Briony and I think it represents the storyline forming in her own mind. When she misinterprets Robbie’s actions in the first part of the movie – typewriter. When she is at Lola and Marshall’s wedding and realizes that he was the one who committed the crime – typewriter. They didn’t really need it when they show adult Briony for the first time, tho it was probably just to introduce her since she hadn’t been in the film for a while. I still don’t think it was overused.
I think the movie did succeed as a war film. The letter writing between Cecelia and Robbie (come back to me!!), the image of the dead school children in the field with gunshot wounds to the head, the traumatic scenes in the hospital ward, soldiers leaving for war by train, soldiers singing on the beach… it all moved me. Also, they didn’t need to show him in combat. I think THAT would have been pointless and not in line with the story. And the reason they showed his battle wound was to connect it to his death since it was probably what caused his infection/sepsis.
Anyway, I agree that the beginning scenes were way too long and they definitely didn’t develop the love story between Cecelia and Robbie. But I still think it was a great movie.
— lean crockett Mar 24, 01:32 PM #Yay for second viewings and typewriter scores! :D
— lean crockett Jul 26, 11:26 AM #