UK / France (2007)
Length: 130 minutes
Genre: Romantic drama
Director: Joe Wright
Screenplay Christopher Hampton
Starring: James MacAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave

Four years before the beginning of the Second World War (1939-1945), the Tallis family leads a peaceful life at their mansion with Robbie Turner, their gardener. On a particularly hot day, young Briony Tallis accuses Robbie of raping her older sister named Cecilia, which is a crime that he didn't commit. However, during all her life, Briony will always seek redemption for what she did, because she knew that she broke the happiness of Robbie and Cecilia (who both love each other).

Based on a best-seller by British novelist Ian McEwan, Atonement, as a movie, came with big expectations. As a matter of fact, director Joe Wright clearly said that adapting a book, which is considered as McEwan's best book ever in the UK, will not be an easy ride. Hopefully, for those who haven't read the novel, the movie should really please you mostly because of the cast's performance and the depth of the storyline.

Unfortunately, he movie's main problem is mostly at the beginning, which progresses as slowly as a novel. In other words, because of the slow pace, the story takes too much time to introduce us to the settings, the characters and what they intend to do. With that said, you could tell that the envy to push the \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"fast forward\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" button can be seen as an option since the beginning really lacks concision in its attempt to set the story\\\\\\'s tone.

However, when the action does begin, Hampton hopefully manages to use Atonement\\\\\\'s slow pace at his advantage. The approach used to develop the characters is based on showing a specific scene through different point of views, namely that of either Cecilia, Robbie and Briony. It might be odd and slow as an approach, but it certainly has an obvious advantage: it allows us to have a closer look on each of the three main characters\\\\\\\' feelings and inner thoughts.

With that said, Atonement also relies on implicit suggestions to make the story progress. The characters are depicted and emote (i.e. through some silence and the expression of their eyes) reminds us of some Asian movies, just like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In short, the amazing ambiguity of the characters gives us an interesting dramatic twist.

Nevertheless, leaving so much ambiguity in a movie is a double-edged knife, in a manner of speaking. While the story is relatively easy to understand, Atonement unfortunately ends with some unanswered questions about the characters\\\' own evolution. For instance, what really motivates Briony to accuse Robbie of doing a crime that he didn\\'t commit? How should we understand the relation between Paul and Lola? In short, the movies often tries to be pleasantly ambiguous that it becomes irksome to see that there\\'s not enough hints to really tell what the chara

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Lawre on Apr 4th 2008

This movie was decent. The only reason it was so good was the ending. So if you plan on watching this, make sure you make it allll the way to the ending... no matter how bored or confused you may be.

Lawre on Apr 4th 2008

F off Ahn Khoi, the one thing that can NOT be dissed is the ending. lol
On a sidenote, this movie has the longest tracking shot in the world up to date, without cuts or the use of editing.

hiddendragon on Apr 4th 2008

By the way, I gave it 4.5/5 stars.

Unfortunately, something is so wrong with the coding that the review doesn't appear in its full version.

If you want to have the full version of the review, go at this URL address: http://anhkhoi.blogspot.com/2008/04/atonement-power-of-suggestion.html

Lawre on Apr 10th 2008

4.5 is good... I personnaly only would have given it 4.. because anything near a 4.5 or a 5 means perfection.. and well, this movie is FAR from perfection.. lol

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