Atonement

Here's the new Mouse movie review blog...

LET'S KICK THINGS OFF with a quick review of "Atonement", which I saw for the second time earlier today. SPOILERS BELOW, people.

Title: Atonement

Director: Joe Wright

Stars: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Vanesse Redgrave, Benedict Cumberbatch (strangely enough, I also recently saw "Amazing Grace", in which Cumberbatch looks like another person entirely)

Review: An amazingly touching movie. What I like most about this is the way it is shot. In the happy times, in flashbacks, everything is soft and foggy in the background, there is a light glow behind the actors' heads, and everything looks very "period". Then back in the real world, everything is stark and the colours are very muted. The best example of this was the moment in the French forest just before Robbie discovered all the dead girls - as he takes off his helmet he imagines himself at home again, and just for a moment the leaves brighten, the sun burns a little brighter, it seems as if he will smile. Then the moment is gone, and if you didn't pay close enough attention you missed it.

The sound, too, is very precise. It's all about the detail with this film - the way everything from footsteps to the clanging of a train are made to resemble the excact pattern of the typewriter at the start, showing how it influenced the rest of their lives. In the library scene, where usually there would be music to sensualise their embrace, there is nothing but the sound of their own ragged breaths and the slight click of the door. It's all very real and moving.

I can only fault the arrangement in one particular. The scene where Robbie lays down, to his ultimate death, at Dunkirk is followed by a long sequence about Briony's experiences in the hospital. To me, this is compeletly the wrong way round; the poignancy of Robbie's final moments is lost in a stream of giggling girls and stern Matrons, much to my dismay; I was almost in tears, but when Briony appeared things seemed much more trivial again. If they had switched the order, having Robbie and his friends arrive at the bar, perhaps, then going to the nursing experience, then switching to Robbie's final moments again, the mood would have held better and the overall flow would have been more effective. Still, I'm sure they had their reasons. Also, while I would like to gripe about the cliche of Robbie stood in a field of poppies, it was so effective that I can't.

Lastly, the story: superb. Especially the literal bombshell revelation dropped on us by Old Briony at the very end: she lied to us?! Gadzooks! Seriously, though, extremely moving and sad. At least they didn't have to live on without each other, that would have been hell.

So, in conclusion: a good five-star film, deserving of massive applause en ce qui concerne the director, Joe Wright.