First Hit: This is wonderful, thoughtful and elegantly written, acted, and photographed film.
The story is about a young girl named Briony, initially played by Saoirse Ronan, who sees a series of events which hurt her 13 year old feelings and in the misinterpretation of these events she knowingly implicates her sister’s lover Robbie (James McAvoy) in a case of assault and rape (although the charges are never clear).
She does this because her young confused heart is hurt. Her sister Cecilia, played by Keira Knightley, tells Robbie she loves him and will wait for him as he is being carted off to prison. However, he is given a choice of serving his country as a soldier in WWII instead of doing his prison time, which he chooses to do. He and Cecilia stay in contact via letters and it is through these letters you sense the depthness of their love for each other.
As Robbie travels to Dunkirk after losing many in his platoon we witness the devastation of Dunkirk and it gives us a great sense of the suffering the English Army took at this beachhead.
I was entranced with the characters and felt their feelings as I traveled through the film. There are three actresses that play Briony.
Besides Saoirse, there is Romola Garai (As the 18 year old), and Vanessa Redgrave as the 70 year old author who has written a book called “Atonement” which is her way to give Cecilia and Robbie the life they never had together.
The writing in this film is poetic and given the quality of the acting the story comes alive by intermixing some old film footage.
The direction was excellent and Joe Wright effectively uses the technique of letting the audience go through a couple of scenes twice, from two different viewpoints, to better understand how a scene affects each character differently in the expanded scene.
Editing of this film was also superb and created a great flow. The acting all the main characters was excellent. Keira and James were especially believable as their chemistry was sizzling and I continue to look forward to films to which they are attached.
Overall: This was an excellent film and deserves to be considered for awards.