Atonement

Atonement is wonderfully suited for broadcast on TV channels that feature love stories. That tragic romance of unfulfilled love, fateful encounters, desire, passion, misunderstandings, sacrifices, hope, and disappointments. The producer spared no expense, and the director tried to make it a sublime visual feast with an artistic touch. But there's a catch. Atonement doesn't work for me. It's overly ambitious, and emotionally missed the mark with me. The acclaimed long shots rather bore me, and I can only appreciate the well-crafted beach scene at Dankers, where the surrounded defeated army tries to forget about the future. When looking at Keira Knightley's emaciated figure, I realized that she resembles more of a medical diagnosis than an actress. This time, I'll take the dissident position in my review... Overall impression: 45%. (2013-03-21)

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. (2008-02-29)

The king for the second time and completely differently. It would be too easy and an excuse to compare it to verbose Pride and Prejudice. Atonement, on the other hand, takes a completely different approach, with the only common aspect. Both films are so personal to me that they grow with every subsequent screening. And so, even though Wright the director and visual perfectionist occasionally surpasses Wright the storyteller, the criticisms disappear precisely because the audiovisual aspect surpasses the majority of what I have seen in life in grand or conversely intimate scenes. Just Atonement, whose literary source is one grand intimate psychological study, is not a piece of cake for adaptation. Master Joe is absolutely unique among contemporary creators in one aspect. He can guide actors to such an extent that they completely merge with their characters and from the screen, desire, love, hidden emotions, and helplessness scream. And I feel how they scream right at me, and so loudly - and I understand them. At this moment, it seems to me that some atonements will be made forever. Happiness is sometimes terribly far away. (2008-03-14)

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] (2008-02-03)

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. (2011-07-29)