Review of Atonement (2007) by Dominic S — 16 Jul 2013

Atonement simply is defined as the redemption of someone/thing that had done wrong.

That is what Briony (Saoirse Ronan) had yearned to achieve throughout this film as a result of falsely accusing Robbie (James McAvoy) of raping her cousin Lola (Juno Temple) in 1935.

Briony had misinterpreted a few encounters between Robbie and Cecilia.

The first one was when Briony believed that Robbie had forced Cecilia to take off her clothes when Cecilia did so herself to retrieve something in a fountain.

The second encounter was when Robbie had written Cecilia two letters, one talking about his love for her while also apologizing for his behavior and another telling her what he would do to her sexually, this letter just being a joke to Robbie, but when he wished for Briony to deliver his letter to Cecila, Robbie gave her the wrong one and Briony read it.

The third encounter was when Briony believed that Robbie was attacking Cecilia when really they were both having sexual intercourse which Cecilia condoned.

When two of Briony's very young cousins ran away at night, everyone gathered a search party and this gave the perfect opportunity for Paul (Benedict Cumberbatch), a friend of Briony's visiting cousin, to make his monstrous move on Lola.

Briony had seen the two bodies on the grass with the use of a flashlight just after Paul had finished. Paul ran away but both Briony and Lola couldn't see who the man was due to the darkness. Briony had set it in her mind so surely that it had been Robbie, the sexual deviant, who harmed Lola, when it was actually Paul.

Robbie was arrested and was given the choice to either serve time in prison or at war, just when the Nazis had invaded Poland and declared war. He chose war.

Five years later, we witness Robbie's horrible time at war while also seeing how he and Cecilia were able to see each other at certain times until Robbie had to leave again for war.

Briony then visits the two lovers, while she is working as a training nurse, in order to sincerely apologize for her huge mistake she had made five years ago.

Both Robbie and Cecilia are unable to forgive Briony.

We then see Briony many years later as a somewhat elderly woman at an interview for a novel she wrote entitled "Atonement" which is basically an autobiography and the honest telling of what happened in 1935.

(SPOILER) Briony reveals in the interview that both Robbie and Cecilia had died in 1940. Robby died from a disease he had caught while at war and Cecilia had died from drowning after a bomb went off and water flooded the bomb shelter which was ironically meant to be her safe haven.

This film is absolutely, beautifully tragic. It's a very sad love story that grabs you by the heart until the end credits commence.

The performances are wonderful, the score is beautiful and creative with the use if keys from a typewriter, the cinematography is gorgeous and outstanding, and the story is beautifully and melodically told with a well written screenplay.

Atonement, I give you a 100%.