Cheap Cds - Atonement [2007]

Back to Atonement [2007]

Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: Oh so pretty, oh so clever - maybe too clever?
Comment: Yes, Keira Knightly (Celia) is ravishing and James McAvoy (Robbie) is studly and the child-acting
(Briony, Lola) is of a wonderful quality; the script is sharp and arch in all the right ways and the
photography is simply immaculate. I can't unsay a word of the praise that has been rightly heaped on
this film.

I was predisposing myself to dislike this film, you see - in spite of being
thoroughly seduced by the director's previous outting, the Keira vehicle Pride & Prejudice - 2005.
Dislike it why? Well, not the Edwardian setting or prim English reserve on offer. I mean, if The
Go-Between and Brideshead Revisited leave you cold, why on earth are you watching a film like this
anyway? But I adore Waugh and Hartley and Graham Greene and McEwan's novel seems to synthesise all
of them, so I positively wanted the lawns to be as clipped as Keira's vowels and wartime London to
be seedy and dystopian. No no, all of that is marvelous. I guess I just dreaded the Keira/McAvoy
love story drenching everything in syrup, pressing a lot of cinematic buttons to make us, the
viewers, like unlikeable people - you know, the way The English Patient [1996] did?

So,
surprisingly, the film had quite the opposite effect on me. I was enchanted by the central love
story, which manages just the right degree of reticence, and found myself rooting for the two,
strangely remote, protagonists. In fact, if the film has a shortcoming, it's that it's too aloof,
too clever, too stylised.

For example, in a breathtaking cinematic tour-de-force, the
evacuation of Dunkirk is introduced through a stunning tracking shot that follows Robbie and his
soldiers across the beach, past the shooting of horses and the burning of books (note: symbolism;
the novel's themes of failed communication and the destructive power of the word being illuminated),
once round the bandstand where the traumatised troops sing a baleful hymn, across the shattered
promenade with the ironic symbol of the ferris wheel rotating in the background and onto the pier
where drunken squaddies retch into the sea, only to touch upon the soldiers' hymn again, wafted to
us on the breeze.

So stunning, in fact, I had to rewind and watch it again! I was
impressed, yes, but somehow a film should wear its technical accomplishment more lightly, don't you
think? The percussive rhythm of typewriter keys that drives the soundtrack along is daring and hints
at the plot's true nature - the novelistic construction created by Briony, not a "true story" at all
- but serves somehow to rob the whole of ambiguity, rather than enhancing it.

Maybe I'm
straining at gnats while swallowing elephants. This is a beautifully shot, imaginatively constructed
and artfully acted movie, a masterclass really. If, in creating an ingenious adaptation of a
clever-clever book by a clever-clever author, it's become a little too clever-clever itself, well
who can blame it?

I was going to award this film four stars, to reflect my slight
discomfort with its overly-intellectual style and construction. Then I gave myself a pinch. For
goodness' sake, how many films can you really criticise for being intellectual while still managing
to pack an emotional punch too? Here's a film that works on every level and anyone who stays away
from it because they dislike period dramas or novelistic adaptations or stick-thin Keira is
impoverishing themselves. Bravo to movies like this - and more of them, please!

Customer Rating:

Summary: Big Al oxford
Comment: Being a fan of slow arty films, i was looking forward to this film but what a disapointment it
turned out to be.Confusing, with scenesshown first from one perspective then from another,the usual
wooden performance from Knightley andfrankly a ludicrious plot.One to avoid.If you want classy film
in a similar genre watch the English Patient.

Customer Rating:

Summary: atonement
Comment: we did not think that this movie was very good the only really good bit was the war scenes

Customer Rating:

Summary: Slightly Flawed Masterpiece
Comment: Joe Wright has wrought something quite magnificent with his latest film. It's what Brits do best -
superbly photographed period drama with serious actors, seriously acting.
In 30's England in a
stately manor, we are introduced to two sisters. The elder (Keira Knightley, looking absolutely
ravishing, and speaking in her best clipped tones..) is in love with Robbie (James Macevoy), who is
not upper class but been a friend of the family for some years. A moment charged with sexual
tension is observed by the younger sister, Briony, is misinterpreted, and ultimately leads to a
false accusation. It is the results of that accusation that drive the movie that follows, and
Briony's growing understanding of what she has done and how she can atone for it.
Acting,
particularly the three actresses playing Briony, is superb. Even better is the stunning photography
which is both beautiful and imaginative... although the much hyped Dunkirk beach scene comes off as
more showing off than intrinsically useful to the story, as audacious as it is. The Oscar winning
score is outstanding, striking sombre, aching and dramatic notes as required, and punctuating scenes
with the staccato rhythm of a typewriter to great effect.
However, there is a pacing problem
with the movie. By shortening the novel in the section which shows what Robbie endures as a result
of the accusation, we do not get a deep enough sense of the tragedy to make the pay-off as effective
as it should be. It's a quibble, but one which robs the movie of a good deal of its emotional
impact.
This is a great director's calling card, and fantastic viewing on many levels. I
suggest that it only falls short of being a masterpiece by a flawed middle section, and being just a
little too self consciously clever from the director's chair.
8 /10

Customer Rating:

Summary: Emperor's new clothes
Comment: This is a dreadful film. Pretentious, overblown and dull. Two dimensional acting, hopeless
stereotyping of 1930's England and a cast of characters that I just couldn't get even remotely
engaged with.It has only 2 redeeming features which are the wonderful, intense cameo by Vanessa
Redgrave (as the older Briony) and the beautiful James McAvoy.

Back to Atonement [2007]

Showing page 11 of 37
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 |