Atonement Movie Review
Major Spoilers are included in this movie review. Please read with caution.
For my book review on the novel, the link is here.
Atonement—a movie adaptation of a novel published in 2001 and written by Ian McEwan—was released in September 2007. This was my second time seeing the movie after a decade had passed since my first viewing.
After reading the book for the first-time during May 2020, I decided to rewatch the movie soon afterward in order to compare the two for differences and similarities—something I hadn’t done since high school. The two-hour film was beautiful.
Synopsis: The movie is set during 1934 on a summer’s day, where main protagonist Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan at age 13, Romola Garai at age 18, and Vanessa Redgrave at age 77) misinterprets the romantic intentions of her older sister Cecelia (Keira Knightley) and son of a servant Robbie Turner (James McAvoy from X-Men: First Class) as something more malicious than romantic. This misinterpretation caused a ripple in all their lives during the carnage and chaos of World War II.
After I finished the movie, I started to cry. Not going to lie, I was crying during my viewing too. I officially enjoyed the movie more than the book. I thought the pacing was slightly better than the novel’s, and the soundtrack was actually really good. The sound of a typewriter naturally weaved into the music was a brilliant idea.
The writer in me swooned whenever the typewriter clacked in the background. I was really immersed in the movie’s setting and felt a somewhat kindred understanding with main protagonist Briony Tallis, a fellow writer.
However, there was still an imbalance on character screen time. I thought Cecelia could’ve used more screen time than Robbie Turner, but James McAvoy’s portrayal of Robbie changed my perspective on the character. McAvoy conveyed Robbie’s valid frustrations toward Briony and his determined love for Cecelia so perfectly during the crucial moments of the film, that I had initially forgotten that he wasn’t the main protagonist. I rooted for him regardless despite knowing what happened to him in the end.
Overall, I do like the movie better than the book. Most film adaptations fail to live up to the book’s original writing success, but this movie was able to better convey the novel’s message through its actors and their performances, the soundtrack, and fixed pacing. The pacing made the story flow perfectly through the two-hour movie. I would recommend watching this fantastic movie if you have two hours to spare.