The Greatest Trick

Widely tipped for Oscar success, Atonement has been given rave reviews just about everywhere. However, after viewing it last night, I must confess a certain amount of disappointment. I don’t dispute the quality of the performances or direction, both are first rate. It’s the story itself I have issues with. Having never read Ian McEwan’s novel on which it is based, I can’t be sure if these narrative problems were inherited from the source material, but I can say that as a film, Atonement isn’t the masterpiece many are claiming.

The delicately balanced plot begins in a kind of pseudo-EM Forster environment, during the hot summer of 1935, thematically echoing novels like A Room with a View, Howard’s End or A Passage to India (and their respective film adaptations) with its beautiful, rich, sexually repressed characters going bonkers in the heat.

To say too much about the plot would be unfair, suffice to say it involves a tragic series of misunderstandings between thirteen year old Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), her sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Cecilia’s lover Robbie (James McAvoy). These eventually lead Briony to falsely accuse Robbie of a terrible crime he didn’t commit. The tragic repercussions affect all three for the rest of their lives.

The first act is absolutely superb. Not since the heyday of Merchant/Ivory has an atmosphere of erotic danger been so richly and vividly conjured. Bizarrely, I was also reminded of the eerie, dangerous magic of Peter Weir’s early films including Picnic at Hanging Rock. The second section, during World War II, felt more uneven, despite a superb five minute tracking shot through the horror of Dunkirk (perhaps intended as homage to the famous crane shot in Gone with the Wind where Scarlett walks into a sea of injured Confederate soldiers). At no point during the war sequences does the audience actually see any combat, but only its bloody aftermath. As an aside, this is a story that rightly celebrates the heroism of the nurses who dealt with such a profoundly traumatic deluge of horrific injuries.

This ought to be the film that silences the “Keira-Knightley-can’t-act” brigade (it has to be said, a largely female group). Why people ever thought she couldn’t act is beyond me. I’ve always found her engaging (even in the dreadful Pirates of the Caribbean sequels), and here she is superb. James McAvoy, in his third outstanding performance this year (after The Last King of Scotland and Becoming Jane), is equally good. But best of all is Saoirse Ronan, playing the thirteen year old Briony. If Atonement deserves an Oscar for anything, it’s for her amazing and frankly terrifyingly intense portrayal of a precocious, emotionally immature confused girl whose imagination gets the better of her. Romola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave are also good as older incarnations of the character, but neither matches Ronan’s astonishing screen presence.

Joe Wright directs with considerable flair, not only with the Dunkirk tracking shot mentioned earlier, but in the way he ensures the multiple points of view don’t become incomprehensible. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvy appropriately contrasts lush, opulent colours at the country house with steely, grim tones for the war. Editor Paul Tothill ensures things never get boring, and Dario Marianelli contributes an interesting music score that neatly ties into the typewriter sound effects that punctuate key points in the narrative.

Which brings me back to my overall objection to Atonement: the ending. To my mind, the final act, set in the present, is a let-down. Make no mistake, I am a complete sucker for melancholy and/or tragic romantic epics (Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, Brief Encounter, Doctor Zhivago, Far from the Madding Crowd and The Remains of the Day are all among my all-time favourites), but Atonement gets a bit too post-modern, and, without giving anything away, tries to have it both ways.

Other reasons some audiences will want to steer clear include sex scenes, graphic images of war injuries, and extremely (and I do mean extremely) strong language. Personally, I think there is a very strong case for saying the above material is contextually justified, but it will nevertheless put some people off.

In short, Atonement is superbly acted and directed, it’s never boring, and for the most part the plot engages. But the ending simply isn’t satisfying, and that is why, for all its undoubted merits, I am filing it under “overrated”.

Simon Dillon, September 2007.