Cheap Cds - Atonement [2007]

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Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: A warning to the unsuspecting
Comment: I decided to watch this because of all the BAFTA and Oscar hype and because the theme of atonement
is so significant. I had not read the book and knew little of the plot. Suffice it to say I was
horrified by the film; if this is an exploration of atonement, then the sixties Batman series is a
set of essays on the sociological aspects of crime. Of course it is well acted, the cinematography
is great, the soundtrack sumptuous, but it is all empty. Sad.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Oh dear
Comment: This film is odd. It looks beautiful. The soundtrack is amazing (some tunes are overplayed
though,it's true). The acting is at worst competent, and occasionally superb (the creepy chocolate
factory owner).
The direction is at times skillful....so what's wrong?
The characters
are very difficult to care about, the timeline jumps around for no reason at all (very annoying),
the pace is excrutiatingly slow and the liberties taken with history were unforgivable.
The
British Army never pardoned child rapists to serve in the front line.
Black soldiers didn't
fight in regular units(shameful racism). There was no massacre of school children in France in
1940. The 'Lord of the Flies/Lost' portrayal of Dunkirk was ludicrous. The forces didn't fall apart
like that. The beach scenes were spun out to justify their expense (let's have a random pack of
wild dogs run through - aaaargghhhh!)
Atonement was very depressing without being moving.
The same team may produce a masterpiece (such is the randomness of film)but this is absolutely
terrible. Easily the worst film I've seen in 5 years.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Boring,boring,boring!
Comment: I would rather watch paint dry than ever see a film like this again. Stilted conversation, clipped
accents (surely our upper crust never communicated with each other in that manner),soldiers who
looked as if they were shopping in Tesco, This film was a disgrace to film making. I am going back
to watching foreign films.

Customer Rating:

Summary: And I begrudge that one star, too!
Comment: Everyone who says this film is a faithful adaptation of McEwan's book is right - but only because
the book was shallow, self-regarding pap, as well. It is illuminating to watch the DVD extra in
which the principal culprits - McEwan, Hampton (screenwriter) and Wright (director) - drone on about
how 'difficult' it was and how 'moving' it was and how terribly talented they all must be to have
produced such a staggering work of unrivalled genius. In fact, it is a wafer-thin narrative
artlessly padded out with a pointlessly mucked-about timeline and a single blatant attempt at an
'amazing' tracking shot (yawn). The filmmakers' utter obliviousness is far more entertaining than
the film itself. Knightley's 'performance' is all but inanimate, so much so that I wondered whether
the director had forgotten to call 'Action'. McAvoy's career continues to mystify. If the hype gets
to you enough, then watch it by all means. But you'll just end up wishing you could get the last two
hours of your life back.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A surprise
Comment: I'll admit, I've not read the novel, and it was with some trepidation that I even agreed to watch
this in the first place - Keira Knightley has been known to make me throw things at the television,
with her ludicrous jaw and wooden acting.

But, as my title suggests, this film really
was a pleasant surprise to me. It was well directed, in a neither straightforward nor confusing
manner, with scenes and chronologies blended together excellently to create moments of suspense,
tension, and show the same moment from a variety of different perspectives without creating the
feeling that anyone was trying to be too clever.

The plot itself was fairly low-tempo
(by no means a bad thing), yet a strong supporting cast managed to put across a variety of subtle
(and sometimes not so subtle) undertones, in a way that is often difficult to do on film. A story of
lovers being torn apart by jealousy, war and circumstance, this could easily have been enormously
Hollywood-ised with moments of high-action and drama, yet happily Joe Wright, the director, resisted
this temptation. Instead, much was left to the imagination, and interpretation of gestures, glances
and unspoken feelings - and in this case, it worked.

As for the cast? Well, Knightley
was, again, a surprise - her woodenness perhaps not entirely covered up, but perhaps more suited to
this style of film. Saoirse Ronan put in one of the best performances from a child actor that I've
seen in a long while as Briony Tallis, whilst the Von Simson twins offered some superb moments of
light relief. The adult members of the cast, predominantly (if not all) British, all seemed to fit
their roles well.

Light-relief this film is not, and nor perhaps is it a blockbuster
that will pass the test of time. But a very good piece of cinema nontheless, and well worth
watching.

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