Atonement

The category of believability was actually key for me. Atonement contains scenes that I would call captivating without hesitating. Those few minutes of war scenes are among the best and most cinematic choices I've ever seen on the subject. Without a single shot fired, with the extraordinary weight on the expressive power of images, without embellishment, without pathetic words that one would certainly find in an American production... In a refined form, the film is simply able to engage and draw one into the plot, offering first-class visual enjoyment of the story. The film is able to arouse sympathy thanks to well-acted characters. The only, but fundamental failure of Wright's melodrama is, from my point of view, the story, which, with its schematic nature, suffocated everything civil and literally pushed me in front of it, preventing me from fully entering the story, identifying with it and sympathizing with it. At the end, which upgrades everything to a tragic crescendo, I was only watching the film with the non-participation of the observer, who rejects the offered catharsis. This is undoubtedly a strong moment, in which, it turns out, the only real atonement of Briony is the lingering belief in the cleansing power of fabrication, and I experienced it with my head rather than my heart. From my point of view, Wright's film suffered the most from verbosity and unnecessary strumming of emotions, whereas it would have been enough to let the film speak through its specific means and not dictate a high level of literacy and sweet-soured phrases (however sympathetic they are to me, these phrases refer more to classical English literature than to the Hollywood tradition). This is, of course, my personal problem, but I think there are a few of us who are unaffected by the film. And that is not a coincidence. [6.5/10] (02/03/2008)

To be quite sincere, I’ve never liked this type of movie much, but this time I’m glad that I decided to make an exception and watch this one. Atonement is a wartime drama that has much more inside it than it seems at first glance. And the standard of the acting performances and directing make it impossible for me to give it anything less than a full set of stars. (02/29/2008)

It's all point-of-view shots, things are made subjective, and it has a fragmented narrative, hypothesis, flashbacks, and flash-forwards (maybe even front-flashes, but I'm not going to segment that for you)... But hell with all that. When in the end it's all washed away by the perfection of Vanessa Redgrave's performance, I even end up believing it's 1935 given Keira Knightley’s performance. (02/04/2012)

Oddly enough, I find Atonement a bit more interesting plot-wise than Pride and Prejudice. The costumes and atmosphere generally suit me. I like the appropriate seriousness of the situation. Overall, I feel like the film means something and carries an idea. The cast is good, although Keira doesn't stand out as much as I think she should. But yes, a well-made film that I'll happily watch a few more times. 4 stars. (07/29/2011)

Romantic films are certainly not the kind I look for, but I have nothing about having an occasional look at genres that are not my favourite and today I decided to watch the best rated romance of 2007, Atonement. The result is that for most of the runtime I was bored and frustrated, hoping for the end. The direction is brilliant, the film has lots of gorgeous visuals, but it didn’t have much of an effect on me. But then the story jumps to the present and the end shattered me. The tempers suddenly flare and I have to say that I don’t regret putting on this film. 70% (08/24/2008)