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Title: Atonement (2007)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Saoirse Ronan | ... | Briony Tallis, aged 13 | |
 |
Ailidh Mackay | ... | Singing Housemaid |
| Brenda Blethyn | ... | Grace Turner | |
|
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Julia West | ... | Betty |
| James McAvoy | ... | Robbie Turner | |
| Harriet Walter | ... | Emily Tallis | |
| Keira Knightley | ... | Cecilia Tallis | |
| Juno Temple | ... | Lola Quincey | |
|
|
Felix von Simson | ... | Pierrot Quincey (as Felix Von Simson) |
|
|
Charlie von Simson | ... | Jackson Quincey (as Charlie Von Simson) |
| Alfie Allen | ... | Danny Hardman | |
| Patrick Kennedy | ... | Leon Tallis | |
| Benedict Cumberbatch | ... | Paul Marshall | |
| Peter Wight | ... | Police Inspector | |
| Leander Deeny | ... | Police Constable | |
See how director Joe Wright uses his signature tracking shots to set up a visual narrative for his films, including Atonement, The Soloist, and Hanna.
When Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), thirteen-years-old and an aspiring writer, sees her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) at the fountain in front of the family estate, she misinterprets what is happening, thus setting into motion a series of misunderstandings and a childish pique that will have lasting repercussions for all of them. Robbie is the son of a family servant toward whom the family has always been kind. They paid for his time at Cambridge and now he plans on going to medical school. After the fountain incident, Briony reads a letter intended for Cecilia and concludes that Robbie is a deviant. When her cousin Lola (Juno Temple) is raped, she tells the Police that it was Robbie she saw committing the deed. Written by garykmcd
I deeply appreciate Atonement for other reasons and while the films are about 10 years apart I am utterly perplexed by how Nolan's Dunkirk became the critical darling it is, especially since this film exists. This film isn't about the evacuation of Dunkirk or WWII (those elements form the background for a fully realized troubled romance and family drama) and YET this film spends about 20 minutes on Dunkirk and it conveys the horror, defeat and dread of it it far sharper and more resonant than Nolan's film does for its entire run time. There is a one very long shot of soldiers on the beach that even manages to capture the whole what is time when facing your death thing better than Nolan's film.
With that being said I most appreciate the soft, luminous cinematography and the very atypical score in this film. Indeed atypical flourishes-the split perspective, the inserted fiction within the narrative, what's being atoned for etc.-greatly elevate a sweeping romance that might have been too conventional if the film played it straight up. It is really the details-sometimes as small as word choice-that really make this film a ravishing epic.
Doomed romances rest on their casting and I can say that both Knightley and McAvoy don't disappoint. McAvoy especially is really sexy, beautiful and emotional in this in that perfectly restrained British way. It may be his career best performance. Good film. It is much better than No Country for Old Men.