Atonement: Movie Review

For good reason. Atonement is that rare combination of a well made film that is artistic and literary yet is still able to draw a wide audience.

The movie is told from the point of view of Briony Tallis, who is a precocious thirteen year old when the story begins. She has just finished writing a play, and we follow her as she runs through her vast home, past servants busily preparing for a dinner party. The dinner party is to welcome home Briony's brother Leon, arriving with his friend Paul Marshall. In a few simple scenes, we are drawn into pre-World War I England, and the privileged life of the Tallis family in particular. Briony's beautiful sister Cecilia is home from college, and as the two of them lie languidly on the lawn, they watch the housekeeper's son, Robbie Turner as he works in the garden. Although Cecilia feigns indifference, it is apparent that she is attracted to him.

When Briony innocently asks why Cecilia doesn't talk to Robbie anymore, Cecilia's discomfort gives us an understanding of the rigid class boundaries that both of them face. Robbie is an anomaly. As the son of a beloved housekeeper, his status was that of an almost-companion to the elder Tallis children. We further learn that Mr. Ellis paid for Robbie to go to college, where he and Cecilia were classmates. However, he isn't equal to them, and as the son of a servant, Cecilia feels she can not associate with him. So although he still works on the grounds, Robbie's education and friendship warrant an invitation for him to join the family for Leon's welcome home dinner.

That afternoon, Briony looks out of her window and sees what appears to be Robbie ordering her sister to strip in the fountain. That scene ends, and it is replayed again, except now we see that what actually happened was far more innocent than the scenario Briony saw from her vantage.

As the family gets ready for the evening, a sequence of Cecilia dressing for dinner is beautifully intercut with Robbie sitting at his typewriter, trying to type an apology for what happened earlier. It is a highly charged scene, and as the camera lingers over Cecilia's skin, the audience watches as the silk dress glides over her body and we see Robbie at the typewriter, perhaps fantasizing about the same thing. Although neither of them touch, and are not even in the same room, the moment is powerfully intimate and sensual.

Since he can not act on his feelings, Robbie writes a raunchy note instead. With a laugh, he sets that note aside and is now able to complete his apology.

As he sets off from his mother's modest cottage to the grand mansion, Robbie walks with the swagger of a handsome young man whose future looks very bright. His face, however, shows the vulnerability of someone burning with unrequited love. It is a combination that makes what is to come all the more wrenching.

Robbie accidentally gives the wrong note to Briony to deliver to her sister. Before she does that, Briony reads it, and recoils at the words. This, and the incident at the fountain, leads Briony to see Robbie in a whole new light.

Cecilia, on the other hand, is titillated at the note. She leads an embarrassed Robbie to the library, ostensibly to chastise him; but she is emboldened at knowing he feels the same way about her as she does about him. In one of the more memorable scenes on film, Robbie and Cecilia make love against the bookcase, slowly and passionately. They whisper their love for each other. Moments later, they hear Briony's tearful voice behind them.

Before the night is over, Briony accuses Robbie of a crime he did not commit, and all of their lives are changed forever. The remainder of the movie shows the consequences of Briony's words, and the lifetime of regret that comes with it.

"Atonement" was directed by Joe Wright, who brought us 2005's "Pride and Prejudice". He not only reunited with Keira Knightley, but with his filmmaking team to make this movie, to great effect. The screenplay was written by Christopher Hampton, who won an Oscar for writing the script for "Dangerous Liaisons".

Both Hampton and Wright took a creative approach by showing several key scenes from different character's point of view. Since this is a story about a false accusation, and told from the point of view of Briony Tallis on her 80^th birthday, it was an inspired choice.

The different vantage point lets the audience know what really happened, even as the characters base their actions only on what they have experienced, for right or wrong. The structure of Hampton's screenplay is also effective. The story is not wholly told in a linear way. We see what happens in Robbie's life, then Briony's and Cecilia's. This works because just as in our own lives, we do not know how our actions affect the lives of others until much later, and only in hindsight.

"Atonement" is a tragic story, and its themes of love and loss, sin and redemption, will resonate with anyone old enough to look back on mistakes they have made and yearn for the chance to make it right.