Atonement

[Vanilla]

Review/Discuss

[TheMovieman]

Great and emotionally charged movie. I still think about the ending today.

[ecstasy]

This movie pissed me off. I've seen it twice by the way.No resolution to a horrible, horrible tragedy. Depressing. I wanted to kill somebody after I watched it.And that little girl Good Lord help me.

[Travod]

Holy lord christ. By far and away the best movie I've seen from Joe Wright. And that single shot epic scene.

[Plain Old Tele]

Didn't much care for it at all.C

Edited May 13, 2013 by Telemachos

[CoolioD1]

It's incredibly well made, but I think the central romance is kinda lifeless, and I wasn't given much of a reason to care about it.

[riczhang]

Barf. Knightmare. It's so fucking terrible and depressing and just a godawful movie. F-

[Plain Old Tele]

I didn't it like much, but I did think Knightley was pretty good.

[acsc1312]

I really like this film. Another one where music and cinematography make the film.A-

[riczhang]

I didn't it like much, but I did think Knightley was pretty good.

Huh? Edited May 14, 2013 by riczhang

[Lordmandeep]

The first half was good when they were in the grand estate as I really like that kind of a setting (Grand House and a grand setting).

 

After it was downhill

 

B + 

[Travod]

I was in love with the movie and then the scene in the underground took it to another level.

[Webslinger]

The book is better. 

 

As great as the movie is, the novel is capable of making heads spin with how deeply meta it gets about the nature of writing/storytelling. I'm still amazed that the movie pulls off the big twist without falling flat on its face.

[ChD]

Very good movie, I enjoyed it a lot. Great cinematography, directing and especially score. Solid performance from Knightley and from Ronan, but I don't know if that Oscar Nominated was deservedly. The twist ending is really, really sad, and the underground scene is also heartbreaking.

 

A

Edited July 13, 2013 by ChD

[TheMovieman]

Watched this tonight (probably my third viewing) and still so powerful and utterly heartbreaking at the end. The performances all around were fantastic not to mention the production design and the one-shot Dunkirk sequence.

 

****½/*****, (A, 9.2/10, 3.75/4)

[Jake Gittes]

It feels like 4 or 5 hours' worth of story and drama crammed into less than half that length, with no less than three main characters and a plot that can't help but appear contrived and too artificially constructed. Maybe all of its coincidences and ironies would feel more natural and tragic if the film dived head-first into the emotions, but Wright's direction here is chilly and distant, enamored with itself and often more interested in scenery than it is in humans that populate it (the celebrated Dunkirk scene is a good example - it comes across as more "Check out my awesome long take!" than anything story-driven), and the bait-and-switch the film pulls close to the end just left a sour taste in my mouth. Whatever power it ultimately has is mostly there thanks to the actors; I never liked Knightley, but she's serviceable here, McAvoy brings the right amount of burning energy and charisma, and Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave's collective portrayal of Briony is absolutely captivating, maybe the best performance of a single character by two or more people in the same movie that I've seen.