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Working Title have a history of producing well made, relatively high budget British films with generally mainstream leanings. They have had moderate success at the various awards ceremonies too, but Atonement looks set to become one of their most acclaimed films yet, and their best Oscar chance since Elizabeth in 1998 (which was nominated for seven, including best film, but only won one). Based on Ian McEwan's novel, Atonement is the second film from director Joe Wright, who previously filmed Pride and Prejudice in 2005. Both films star Keira Knightley, and again Wright shows a knack for wringing a good performance out of the omnipresent English starlet - a talent which few other directors have demonstrated. In truth, the very stiff upper-class character of Cecilia Tallis seems almost as tailor-made for Knightley as the Terminator did for Schwarzenegger, but she does get to stretch her acting and emoting muscles, and generally succeeds.
Surprisingly, however, given her fame and prominent billing, Knightley's Cecilia is not the central character. During the first section of the film, set around a mansion on a hot summer's day in 1935, we mainly follow the 13-year-old Briony Tallis, Cecilia's younger sister, played with astonishing skill by the talented Saoirse Ronan (who has been cast as the lead in Peter Jackson's next film, The Lovely Bones). Briony is a young aspiring writer born to a privileged family who witnesses what she perceives to be a shocking event – involving Cecilia and James McAvoy's Robbie Turner. McAvoy, sporting a posh English accent, once again excels as the lowly gardener who finds himself accused of a terrible act. While the pace of this first half is slow, there's an undeniable undercurrent of tension throughout the proceedings, which come to a climax (literally) with a hugely erotically charged yet far from explicit sex scene, one of many sequences expertly handled by Wright.
After the tumultuous events of that day in 1935, the film jumps five years to France during the second world war, where Robbie is now a soldier trying to evacuate from the country. The Dunkirk section, containing the mind-blowing five-minute tracking shot about which so much has already been written, is brilliantly directed and is the film's high point. However, in the context of the rest of the film it seems oddly superfluous; we don't really need to see Robbie's experience of the war as it doesn't shed any light onto the main plot, centring around Briony. The film feels strangely fractured, jumping around in time inconsistently and without any apparent motivation at times. After Dunkirk, Briony (aged 18, now played by Romola Garai) again becomes the focus, but it's not exactly clear why, and the film becomes slightly aimless. Fortunately it remains engrossing, although how much of that is simply due to wanting to know where the story is going will only become clear after a repeat viewing when the eventual outcome is already known.
Ah yes, the ending. It is certainly a conclusion bound to split audience opinions. On the one hand, it's commendable for its audacity – those who haven't read the book will never see it coming. Conversely, it is not suggested or implied earlier in the film and therefore feels like a cheat, just designed to pull the rug out from audiences' feet. It's not a twist incorporated into the main narrative, instead being delivered in a jarring tacked-on epilogue that just feels clumsy and heavy-handed. Despite its tear-jerking aspirations it also lacks the emotional punch that it needs to truly work, instead just ending the film on an unsatisfying note.
Ultimately, Atonement is a frustrating film. At times it borders on greatness, with a measured but engrossing first act and a superbly made midsection - the Dunkirk tracking shot makes the film worth seeing on its own. It is also immaculately acted, with Knightley's porcelain coldness suiting the character and McAvoy delivering yet another knockout performance. However, the story lacks flow and certain directorial flourishes come off as overly tricksy, making it somehow less than the sum of its (often excellent) parts.
The summary
Atonement is an unusual film – part period drama, part war movie – and never quite makes its narrative structure work. Certainly worth seeing, but only a qualified triumph.
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