Atonement

Year: 2007

Grade: B

Country: UK

Director: Wright

Review

interesting film. knightley needs to eat a sandwich and learn to act. score was good and should win the oscar. inventive and incorporates the film’s elements well.

strangely, i liked the first part, which was more period drama and love story, than the second part, which took place on the battlefield (sorta). none of the performances were very good, but knightley’s was actually bad. it reminded me a bit of brokeback mountain, but that film’s strengths and weaknesses were the inverse of this films. brokeback had good acting and so-so direction, atonement had so-so acting and good direction. it’s a compelling story because of the elements of regret, love, memory, youth, and injustice.

cinematography was nominated for an oscar, but only had two noteworthy scenes. the best one was the tracking shot on the beach with all the soldiers waiting to leave and it lasted about 7 minutes. it was one continuous shot without a cut and it was impressively choreographed. don’t let anyone tell you it was amazing, but it was very good. as for the film, nice enough, probably a better book.

Watched in theater