Review: Finding ‘Atonement’

“Atonement” makes up for the sins of so many poor adaptations. (“Love in the Time of Cholera” comes to mind.)

The second film from “Pride and Prejudice” director Joe Wright, like “No Country for Old Men,” exquisitely captures the essence and nuance of the page and translates it to the screen with breathtaking originality.

The film opens in 1935 England. Thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a fledgling playwright gifted with an unquenchable imagination, enjoys the run of her family’s sprawling estate. But on this, the hottest day of the year, the gargantuan mansion becomes a place of primal desire and unsettling lusts, fueling Briony’s already fertile creative energy.

Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the housekeeper’s son, has always carried a torch for Briony’s aloof sister, Cecilia (Keira Knightly). Far from uneducated (the girls’ benevolent father put Robbie through Cambridge, where Cecilia also attended but refused to acknowledge his existence), Robbie hopes to someday win Cecila’s heart.

But when Robbie’s deepest hopes are realized, Briony — who has always had a crush on Robbie — chooses to believe her own invented fantasies rather than reality, and accuses Robbie of a horrifying crime he did not commit. (The film employs a sort of Rashomon view in which the viewer is allowed to see certain events from several perspectives — one the truth and the other the misinterpreted reality).

Although Robbie and Cecilia pledge their love for one another at last, their lives are instantly torn apart. And Briony will spend the remainder of her lifetime, as a young adult (Romola Garai) and an elderly woman (Vanessa Redgrave) trying to right her wrong and atone for her transgressions. Her final resolution is as catastrophic as it is astonishing.

When I walked out of 2005’s “Pride and Prejudice,” I told my friends I’d see anything Joe Wright helmed in the future. A film of luminous beauty and power, “Pride and Prejudice” caught me completely off guard. “Atonement,” when it was announced, instantly became one of my most anticipated films of this year.

The cast is wonderful from top to bottom. McAvoy’s star is on the rise and it is entirely because of choosing rich, multi-faceted roles such as this one. Knightly, all porcelain and silk and clad in dresses so light and transparent that they hang like a second skin, undulating at the slighted breeze, deliriously captures both detached reserve and heartbroken yearning.

The role of Briony is played by three actresses, each of whom build upon the other, creating a character of vast depth. Although Redgrave guarantees an impeccable performance, newcomers Ronan and Garai truly elevate the role.

Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey has fashioned a film both lustrous and painterly. “Atonement” glows. Mc-Garvey and Wright have also produced what may be the single most impressive sequence put to film this year — a 5½ minute, unbroken tracking shot of the British expeditionary forces massed on the beaches of Dunkirk.

Composer Dario Marianelli, who provided the breathtaking score for “Pride and Prejudice,” returns with an audacious but triumphant soundtrack punctuated with the percussion of a typewriter.

“Atonement” is about the precariousness of life and the need to cherish everyday happiness. For as much as we like to think that we are masters of our own fate, we are born on the winds of caprice and chance more than we ever wish to admit, and a single, seemingly random event can spin our lives off in an unexpected and often tragic direction.

“Atonement” is a rare melodrama of manners. It can and will coax tears, but never by relying on maudlin sentimentality or cheap emotional theatrics. Wright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton (“Dangerous Liaisons”) understand implicitly that Ian McEwan’s material is already suffused with all the necessary elements to move the human heart. There are some films that deserve to be seen more than once. “Atonement” is such a film. It does not raze the watchtowers of our hearts all at once, but slowly, methodically, over days and weeks after the lights go up.

details

Atonement

Cast: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai

Director: Joe Wright

Playing at: Cinemark

Rating: R (for disturbing war images, language and some sexuality)

Running time: 2 hours, 2 minutes

Grade: A +