Atonement...

ATONEMENT: Compensation for a wrong , The act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing.


So how do one seek compensation for an act one does without any self control...well, the answer is as complex as this movie which I saw last night.

Intricate to the extreme, the underlying plot of this story is just too imaginative...stroking all your senses to capture the essence of this magnificently shot , erratic yet beautiful movie. Its maverick direction is its biggest strength.

In 1935, 13-year-old girl her , Briony, and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous mansion. This mansion is the landscape of her vivid imagination.

Robbie Turner (Mr. McAvoy), the educated son of the familys housekeeper, is madly in love with Briony's headstrong older sister Cecilia (Ms. Knightley). Cecilia, he hopes, has comparable feelings; all it will take is one spark for this relationship to combust.

But the problem is that Briony also has a crush on Robbie.

"Robbie : Come on, pal. You should be getting dressed.
Briony : If I fell in the river, would you save me?
Robbie : Of course.
[Briony jumps into the water and Robbie dives after her; eventually, he pulls her out of the water and drops her near the bank]
Briony : Thank you, thank you, thank you...
Robbie : That was an incredibly bloody stupid thing to do.
Briony : I wanted you to save me.
Robbie : Don't you know how easily you could have drowned?
Briony : You saved me.
Robbie : You stupid child! You could have killed us both! Is that your idea of a joke?
[she looks at him for a moment, shocked by his tone, but defiant nonetheless]
Briony : I want to thank you for saving my life. I'll be eternally grateful to you.
[he strides away angrily, into the woods, leaving Briony disconsolate amidst the cow parsley] "

So how do you cope with this feeling...a 13 year old having a crush with a man in love with her sister. You feel the tension brewing, the emotions waiting to spark off when you see Briony confronting Robbie.




And what is the way out of this for a young girl...clearly lost in her imaginations.....well, she is compelled to interfere, going so far as accusing Robbie of a crime he did not commit. Cecilia and Robbie declare their love for each other, but he is arrested and with Briony bearing false witness, the course of three lives is changed forever.

Briony continues to seek forgiveness for her childhood misdeed. Through a terrible and courageous act of imagination, she finds the path to her uncertain atonement, and to an understanding of the power of enduring love.
“Atonement” proves that no matter how hard you try, you can’t undo the past. Told through flashbacks and through the words of Briony, the film is sweeping in it’s beauty.

I truly loved the way the camera takes you on many memorable journeys, none as great as an incredible five minute tracking shot in which the scene never cuts away. Robbie, serving in the Army in France, comes upon the chaos of the beach at Dunkirk in 1940 where Allied soldiers awaited evacuation during World War II.
The wastefulness and horror of War is captured in a remarkable, unbroken, five-minute shot. It's bravura direction

It is brilliantly shot as we follow Robbie and his two companions in a swirling walk around the activity surrounding them. The hope and despair of the war sick men is portrayed perfectly in this scene, as a shocking moment where the horses are shot in the head due to the inability to transport them is contrasted by a group of singing men who demonstrate the power of the human will in the face of adversity.
Its a wonderfully crafted sequence, almost jaw dropping and breathless...my head just went on a roll as the camera rolled through the Dunkirk beach with an haunting background score. Just Mindblowing !!

background score manages to include the “clack” of typewriter keys. This effect is a fine acc

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. What musical encore!!!

The film touched the chords deep within me during the last sequences...

[last lines]
Older Briony:" So, my sister and Robbie were never able to have the time together they both so longed for... and deserved. Which ever since I've... ever since I've always felt I prevented. But what sense of hope or satisfaction could a reader derive from an ending like that? So in the book, I wanted to give Robbie and Cecilia what they lost out on in life. I'd like to think this isn't weakness or... evasion... but a final act of kindness. I gave them their happiness. "

And moments later she reveals the truth....the truth of 'atonement':
In reality, Robbie died of his wounds before he could be evacuated.
Cecilia died a few months later when a German bomb burst a water main and flooded the subway tunnel in which she and other Londoners had taken refuge during the Blitz.
This is shown in a sweeping manner where Cecilia is shown lying in the subway and later ..floating dead ...looking chilling yet beautiful in the

Briony was never able to apologize to either of them. The novel is, therefore, her atonement for the naive but destructive acts of a 13-year-old child, which she has always regretted.

Briony hopes that, by reuniting them, she gives them the happy conclusion to their lives that they deserved and her readers the hope that everyone needs to survive.

In the closing scene, Robbie and Cecilia walk down the beach on a bright, beautiful day. On the steps of the seaside cottage, they look at the beautiful white cliffs, then disappear inside.
Robbie : Dearest Cecilia, the story can resume. The one I had been planning on that evening walk. I can become again the man who once crossed the surrey park at dusk, in my best suit, swaggering on the promise of life. The man who, with the clarity of passion, made love to you in the library. The story can resume. I will return. Find you, love you, marry you and live without shame.