Atonement Review

Synopsis: Joe Wright, the BAFTA Award-winning director of Pride & Prejudice, has reunited with his filmmaking team and his Academy Award-nominated actress, Keira Knightley, for another classic British romance, starring James McAvoy (BAFTA Award nominee for The Last King of Scotland) opposite Ms. Knightley. Christopher Hampton (Academy Award winner for Dangerous Liaisons) has written the screenplay adaptation of Ian McEwans best-selling 2002 novel Atonement. Shot on location in the U.K., the films story spans several decades. In 1935, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous mansion. On the warmest day of the year, the country estate takes on an unsettling hothouse atmosphere, stoking Brionys vivid imagination. Robbie Turner (Mr. McAvoy), the educated son of the familys housekeeper, carries a torch for Brionys headstrong older sister Cecilia (Ms. Knightley). Cecilia, he hopes, has comparable feelings; all it will take is one spark for this relationship to combust. When it does, Briony who has a crush on Robbie is compelled to interfere, going so far as accusing Robbie of a crime he did not commit. Cecilia and Robbie declare their love for each other, but he is arrested and with Briony bearing false witness, the course of three lives is changed forever. Briony continues to seek forgiveness for her childhood misdeed. Through a terrible and courageous act of imagination, she finds the path to her uncertain atonement, and to an understanding of the power of enduring love.

Other Reviews:

Ebert & Roeper: Thumb Down (Scott) Thumb Up (Roeper)
Fandango: 70 Oh no, 98 No, 249 So-So, 493 Go, 664 Must Go
Rotten Tomatoes: T-Metter Critic: 82% Fresh, Top Critic 86% Fresh RT Community: 80% Fresh
Yahoo Movies: Critic: B+, User: B

My Review: If it doesn’t win best picture at the Oscars it will be a close second. It was one of most beautiful film I have seen in a long time. Before this film The Phantom of the Opera and Batman Begins where top of my list of best cinematography but now this one may top it. I am defiantly recommending this one.