atonement

atonement - satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury
this film is going to be raved about and will clean up all sorts of awards
there are just so many elements that are bang on
keira knightley is gorgeous and don't they know it
her beauty is the jewel in the crown of this very english film
i'm not at all familiar with the classics of english literature
though i sensed the early scenes in this film were as classic as it gets
lovely countryside, huge mansions, the coldness of aristocracy
children should be seen and not heard, no sex we're english kind of stuff
so a scandal on the property is dealt with swiftly, deftly and unjustly
leaving the younger sister of our beauty with a lot to answer for
and hence the title of the film in her role as the central character
james mcavoy is the innocent victim heart-throb romeo in the film
so that makes for 2 young and beautiful characters - 2 boxes ticked
the middle part of the film is set mainly on the beach at dunkirk in ww2
as the english beat a retreat and our hero is part of the action
if during the first part of the film i felt a witness to sunday night tv theatre
then the producers went for broke in this part with it's impressive cinematography
taking up the challenge for the longest single take with the most actors
it's all very cleverly done and reminds us this is a serious film folks
then we are back in england with the younger sister now older and played by another actor
she has turned to nursing to do something useful and her need for atonement is driving her
but the director hasn't finished with telling us about the horror of war
so we see returning soldiers in various states of mangle
somewhere in this part of the film we switch to fantasy mode in a very subtle way
as we see young sister finally find her disgraced sibling and her now reunited love
she puts forward her case for seeking atonement for the sins of her childhood
in return the 2 lovers accept and apply their stringent conditions
at which point we are jolted out of this period and end up in the current day
as we see young sister as an elderly woman telling her story on a tv show
seems she has written a book called atonement (very neat)
she is now a famous author and is explaining the background to this her last book
which confirms the suspicions of the fantasy sequence earlier in the film
vanessa redgrave plays the character of the now older sister/nurse
she provides a performance that i thought was exceptional
not like the rest of the film which lacked any real emotion i could connect with
there are a lot of actors impressively strutting their stuff
but it seems the directors/producers are looking in another direction
it actually felt like an english version of that other big war-drama film titled pearl harbour
complete with the stunned and beautiful brunette and the heroic man off to war
at least in that one they loaded up the action on the screen rather than feign it
as for atonement - theme, what theme?
it scrambles home in the final scene thanks to vanessa redgrave
i think i'd rather go for another 3-syllable 9-letter word
bombastic - high-sounding, high-flown, inflated, pretentious