Atonement (2007) ★★★★ Quote:
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As a 13-year-old, fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister’s lover of a crime he did not commit.
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I haven't read Ian McEwan's book on which this is based so I'm able to formulate an opinion on this as a film rather than an adaptation of a celebrated novel.
With an absolutely stunning cast including a young Saoirse Ronan, Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Gina McKee, Juno Temple, Daniel Mays, Brenda Blethyn, and Vanessa Redgrave, Joe Wright has no shortage of talent to direct and he does so with aplomb.
With the central message of the devastating impact of an outrageous childhood falsehood, this is a clever and emotionally engaging look at correspondence, writing, and truth.
The film is masterfully directed by Wright, particularly noteworthy is the bravura sequence at Dunkirk, an astonishing piece of cinema with a lengthy single shot passage taking in the scale of the evacuation and the massive toll of warfare on people, animals, and machinery.
All the characters are fully fleshed out by the great cast, Saoirse Ronan and (later) Romola Garai bring different aspects of Bryony to the screen, James McAvoy builds on the great performance in The Last King of Scotland
Considering this is a film about how a misunderstanding and subsequent lie ruins three lives, it's a surprisingly enjoyable film to watch and is probably even better than Wright's Pride and Prejudice (2005), and easily the equal of Hanna (2011), Anna Karenina (2012) and Darkest Hour (2017); it's a story which is both epic and intimate.