atonement review…

i feel the need to preface this with a note that my attention was diverted in some way for a great portion of the movie. the sounds of my neighborhood and the drying laundry were two of the things begging for attention. but in a sense, i wonder if my problems focusing on the movie were problems with the movie itself – or a typical case of wrong time and wrong place.

i worry that atonement might have been one of my favorite movies. it’s got great acting, an intriguing plot and conflict that puts people in situations so deep, you find yourself being lassoed by sympathy to the object of shame. some very great movies make you feel everything for a character – hate and love mixed with some of that “no one is perfect” melancholy.

the movie plays in two parts from love story into a jarring disconnect in the middle that suddenly shifts the story to a war torn france during world war ii. briony tallis (played by three actresses: saoirse ronan, romola garai and vanessa redgrave) becomes the character of conflict when she mistakenly identifies robbie turner (james mcavoy) as her cousin’s rapist. spurned by turner after an admission of love, the 13-year-old tallis sees her emotions for him sour after several traumatic, and misinterpreted, incidents involving him and her sister cecilia (keira knightly). years later, with a clear head and contrite heart, she reaches out to cecilia to ask for forgiveness while turner soldiers on in france paying his debt to society and avoiding prison.

a sort of epilogue at the end brings it all into a pointed tip that definitely softened me up, but i wondered why i felt nothing before. the acting is magnificent with everyone filling their roles with weighted emotion. the child actresses — ronan as tallis and juno temple playing the snotty cousin, lola quincey, might as well be seasoned veterans with the amount of gravitas they play their respective roles. if there’s anything i could put my finger on, as to why i didn’t enjoy this as much as i wanted to, it must have had to do with the pacing and direction of scenes. in a movie that showed how one moment could be interpreted in two starkly different ways ultimately leading a romance to ruin, i wish i didn’t feel so out of the loop.

this is one movie i’m probably going to give a second viewing to. when that happens, it might get a deeper and more favorable critique from me. or perhaps i might find myself knowing exactly why i couldn’t agree with all the hype surrounding this movie.

3/5