Most of the cast breathe heavily and in high volume from some degree of desire or fear or guilt.
For those of
us who haven’t read the book, “Atonement” can be a frustration. In a positive
view, it could be that director Joe Wright is trying to paint in the abstract,
giving us pieces of the novel here, and then there, counting on the fragments to
convey the atmosphere of English country life from 1935 into World War II. The
result is a confusion of sudden cuts and flashbacks.
In addition
to the confusion factor, there is the matter of being distracted by a loud and
intrusive sound track. The best soundtracks support a story without telling you
how to feel. This one tells you when to be sad or scared or angry. Then there is
the problem of the heavy breathing. Most of the cast are breathing heavily and
in high volume from some degree of desire or fear or guilt.
Kiera
Knightly, whose role is actually smaller than the second lead, dominates by
sheer force of style. The sex against the library bookshelves in the spectacular
green dress is one for the ages. But as much as Knightly holds our attention, it
is Saoirse Ronan, who plays Briony at 13 who gives the movie its substance.
Watching from
a window in the country mansion, Briony sees her sister Cecilia (Knightly) and
Robbie (James McAvoy) play out an incident that is the core of the story. In
what may be a willful misinterpretation of what she sees, Briony constructs and
tells a tale that sends Robbie first to jail and then to the army at the
beginning of the war. Her act reverberates horribly through the lives of all
three of them over the years. At 18, Briony, now a wartime nurse, understands
her adolescent guilt. In older age, as a successful novelist (Vanessa Redgrave)
she wraps up the story in a series of stunning revelations about how she chose
to atone for her actions. The last quarter of the movie is surely one of the
most powerful endings to grace a movie in years. And Redgrave delivers it in a
calm voice, no heavy breathing.
Going back to
the idea that director Wright may be painting an abstraction, the war scenes
simply look disturbingly fake, perhaps deliberately so. The 300,000 soldiers
waiting for rescue on the beach at Dunkirk are either a symbol of that great
effort or a failed depiction depending on how you see it. In either case, it is
the soldiers who are now doing the heavy breathing (fear)) on the soundtrack.
Because we
are given none of the background to the romance between Cecilia and Robbie, they
can’t come alive. We are told little about this family. Often, we don’t even
know where we are. The filmmakers spring things on us without providing a frame
of reference. I simply can’t find the heart in this movie. You must be well
aware by now that the Golden Globes people disagree with me entirely.
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