New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.

Follow Me

• 2009 Oscars
• District 13: Ultimatum **1/2
• From Paris with Love **1/2
• Edge of Darkness **
• Fish Tank ***1/2
• Legion **
• When in Rome *
• More

• Adam
• The Bourne Identity [DVD/Blu-Ray hybrid]
• The Bourne Supremacy [DVD/Blu-Ray hybrid]
• The Bourne Ultimatum [DVD/Blu-Ray hybrid]
• The House of the Devil
• Import Export
• More Than a Game
• Ong-Bak 2
• Zombieland
• The 25 Best DVDs of 2009
• More

• 2009: The Year's Ten Best Films
• The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009
• My 2003 Interview with Brittany Murphy
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards 2009
• Richard Linklater
• John Woo
• Jared and Jerusha Hess
• Essential Halloween Movies
• Michael Stuhlbarg
• Jane Campion
• Bobcat Goldthwait
• Hugh Dancy
• Kathryn Bigelow
• Willem Dafoe: The 2009 CineVegas Interview
• David Carradine
• A 2002 Interview with Edward Asner
• Vinessa Shaw
• Henry Selick
• 2008: The Year's Ten Best Films
• The San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards 2008
• The 25 Best DVDs of 2008
• Bruce Campbell
• Darren Aronofsky and Marisa Tomei
• Josh Brolin
• A Tribute to Paul Newman
• Steve Coogan on Hamlet 2
• Manny Farber (1917-2008)
• Bernie Mac (1957-2008)
• Emily Mortimer
• Brad Anderson
• Don Cheadle at CineVegas
• Abel Ferrara at CineVegas
• Tina Sinatra
• My Top 100 Films [Updated]
• My Top 60 Directors [Updated]
• The Top 50 Movies of the Past Ten Years (1997-2006)
• Terry Zwigoff on the new Bad Santa Director's Cut
• Alfonso Cuarón Interview
• Guillermo Del Toro Interview
• Christmas Movies
• Combustible Celluloid's Big Guide to Halloween & Horror Movies
• Cult Movies
• Actress Interview Gallery
• The Top 100
• More Features and Interviews

• Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
• James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee
• Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
• Guide to Essential Movies, by Joe Leydon
• Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood, by Robert S. Birchard
• Profoundly Disturbing, by Joe Bob Briggs
• A Third Face, by Samuel Fuller
• Dark Lover, by Emily Leider
• Agee on Film, by James Agee
• Lulu in Hollywood, by Louise Brooks
• Negative Space, by Manny Farber
• 5001 Nights at the Movies, by Pauline Kael
• More Books

• Home
• Reviews A-C
• Reviews D-F
• Reviews G-J
• Reviews K-M
• Reviews N-Q
• Reviews R-T
• Reviews U-Z

The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

SEARCH MOVIES / CELEB

Atonement (2007)

Rating: 3 Stars (out of 4)

Wright and Wrong

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Based on a novel by Ian McEwan, Atonement tells a complex story about a man, a woman, and the woman's little sister who comes between them. Working from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton (The Quiet American), director Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice) deftly handles the film's first half, set over a single summer day in 1930s England, weaving past and present events back and forth to create an illusion of disjointed time. For example, in one scene Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley) jumps into a fountain, and in the next she appears in her room, bone dry. But we soon deduce that the second scene actually occurs before the latter. This ploy works, and it serves to fracture the film's point of view, allowing the little sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan) to believe what she thinks she sees. The son of the housekeeper, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), is in love with Cecilia, and she's in love with him. Their romance is, of course, forbidden, but through a series of mistimed coincidences, Briony deduces that he's a sex maniac and a seducer of young girls. He goes to prison and eventually joins the army to fight in World War II. From there, however, Wright loses his course and begins focusing on the horrors of war instead of the soiled fates of these three characters. He includes a tour-de-force shot, a five-minute take of the Dunkirk evacuation, utilizing perhaps thousands of extras and hundreds of props, all moving back and forth, in front of and around the camera. It's dazzling, and it will no doubt please Academy voters, but why is it there? It pulls all the focus to Robbie, with none to spare for Briony or Cecilia. The second half of the film has a few other tricks up its sleeve, each with the same middling effect. Likewise, the actress that plays the older Briony, Romola Garai, seems hamstrung by the effort of finding a cohesive line to her younger counterpart. Overall, Atonement is a mixed bag, but far better than Wright's muddled Pride & Prejudice (2005) and ultimately worth seeing.

DVD Details: The DVD from Universal/Focus comes with a Joe Wright commentary track (I wonder if he confesses to "showing off" during the Dunkirk sequence?), two featurettes and deleted scenes. The feature is presented with several optional language and subtitle tracks.

Buy DVD | Buy Blu-Ray | iTunes Download

Trailer | Poster | Soundtrack | Book

Starring: James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Romola Garai, Saoirse Ronan, Vanessa Redgrave, Brenda Blethyn, Juno Temple, Patrick Kennedy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Harriet Walter, Michelle Duncan, Gina McKee, Daniel Mays, Alfie Allen
Written by: Christopher Hampton, based on a novel by Ian McEwan
Directed by: Joe Wright
MPAA Rating: R for disturbing war images, language and some sexuality
Running Time: 123 minutes
Date: December 7, 2007

AskMen.com: Atonement