
X
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Rated R · 2h 3m
As a 13-year-old, fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit. Once Briony is older, she must accept what she did as a child and try to heal her relationships.
WHAT ARE PEOPLE SAYING?
Atonement is one of those rare novel adaptations that is extraordinarily cinematic. The richness of the characters and the depth of the world they inhabit both signal a weighty source material, but the film is expertly adapted in that it emulates the spirit of the book and evokes the same emotions through a different narrative medium without employing a novelistic approach.
I remember rewatching this film after reading the book for a class in high school. Saoirse Ronan's Performance is great as young Briony. Keira Knightley and James McAvoy are both great too. The film represents the book well by keeping the first part from Young Briony's point of view. Keira Knightley's green dress still stands out in my memory of favorite costume choices.
An emotional watch that really immerses you in the world of the characters and the many consequences of their actions, beginning and ending — rightly so — with Briony’s perspective. The weight that our words carry, even as children, follows us into adulthood, as this film makes tragically clear. How can you right a wrong when you don’t even realize it’s a wrong until it’s too late? Statements, especially of the accusatory sort, cannot be retracted so easily, a powerful realization that stuck with me as it stuck to Briony.
Add your comment here.
WHAT ARE CRITICS SAYING?
Village Voice by
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
Newsweek by David Ansen
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
Variety by Derek Elley
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers