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Atonement 15
SCREENINGS Probably your last chance to see one of Saffron Walden’s favourite films on the big screen. Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Ian McEwan’s superb novel, directed by Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice) returns in celebration of the awards season. Cecilia (Keira Knightley) is whiling away the hot summer of 1935 at her family home. The housekeeper’s son Robbie (James McAvoy), a bright boy whose education has been paid for by Cecilia’s father, falls for Cecilia before his life is crushed by one vast lie. Briony (Saoirse Ronan in an impressive debut) is Cecilia’s younger sister, seeing life through her stories and her developing mind, watches her sister and Robbie, reads too much into everything, and leads herself to her devastating lie. The film then moves to wartime where Cecilia is a nurse, Briony (now played by Romola Garai) a probationer and Robbie is in the chaos of Dunkirk. And finally, Briony, now a famous writer (Vanessa Redgrave) must face the truth about herself. BBFC advice: Contains very strong language, bloody injuries and moderate sex “Starry, sexy and unmistakably British, Atonement is the kind of film that comes along all too rarely... the director Joe Wright’s follow-up to Pride and Prejudice oozes quality. As the society swan Cecilia Tallis, Keira Knightley has never looked more iconic than she does in the chic, slouchy fashions of the mid 1930s; the clipped, brittle accent of the period suits her chalky Englishness. Her lover, the housekeeper’s son Robbie, is played by James McAvoy, quietly affecting as the young man whose bright future is crushed by one massive, malicious lie. Sensitively adapted from Ian McEwan’s novel, the film is true to the book’s sweeping scope and to the voice of its terminally unreliable narrator. Wright twice repeats key scenes to skew our perception of them – each time we first see them through the blinkered eyes of 13-year-old Briony Tallis, then we get a more adult perspective. It’s a simple device, but utterly effective... Awards season beckons.” “ ... In one near-wordless, five-minute tracking shot on the beach at Dunkirk, as Robbie’s exhausted troopers stagger in to find not refuge but chaos, Wright stakes a claim to scene of the year. Vignettes - cavalrymen shooting horses to deny the advancing Germans, drunks draining the local bars - form a meticulous picture of the desperate straits of the Allies. Amid the booming artillery, scattered shipwrecks and soldiers searching for food and refuge, Wright keeps turning back to McAvoy’s face, as the best young British actor of our times reflects the weary horror of the day before the ships arrive. The sheer logistics of the shot are impressive, but it’s the emotion that makes this such an astonishing achievement. This is as effective a World War II beach scene as Saving Private Ryan’s opening, a fight for survival of a different kind. But if McAvoy impresses once again, it’s Knightley who finally stakes her claim in a grown-up part. Those cut-glass tones are exactly posh enough to fit Cecilia, a more brittle role than the feisty girls she’s played before and one more suited to her delicate beauty. She might want to specify that Wright direct every film she makes in the future. ... An adaptation at least as good as the novel - complex, delicate and devastating. Gorgeous cinematography, a lilting score and near-faultless performances, under Wright’s assured direction, make this the first contender for next year’s Best Picture Oscar. “ UK RELEASE 7 September 2007 DIRECTOR Joe Wright CAST Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Romola Garai, Brenda Blethyn, Vanessa Redgrave RUNNING TIME 123 minutes COUNTRY UK
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