Atonement (2007)

Briony (Saoirse Ronan) is a rather unlikable 13-year-old child. She's known Robbie (James McAvoy) her entire life. In fact, not that much earlier before the "events" of the film unfold, Robbie saved her life, and she told him that she would be "eternally grateful" to him. It seems she had a crush on him... but Robbie, of course didn't know that. She was too young, and he loved her older sister.

Robbie was the family servant, but Briony's father liked him enough that he put him through Cambridge and was willing to continue putting him through medical school.

Unfortunately, Briony walks in on Robbie and Ceilia (Keira Knightley) having sex in the library. Notice how the film repeats "shocking" events that Cecilia witnesses, at least between Robbie and Celicia. The first is when Cee strips to her underwear to jump into the fountain to retrieve a broken piece of porcelain. The second time is when she sees them in the library.

Just prior to that moment, Briony has opened and read Robbie's note to Cee, the version of the note he wrote but didn't mean to send -- a bit careless, that. A scandalous and self-incriminating note... These three events color Briony's view of Robbie, and she accuses him of something he has not done. Her testimony is apparently enough to land him in prison. Cee, however, never stops believing in his innocence, even disowning her family and their wealth to protest their assumption that he was guilty of a crime.

Meanwhile, World War II has begun, and after 3 years in prison, Robbie has the opportunity to enlist as a private, to serve in the war rather than to rot in prison. He takes that opportunity and ends up in France.

He and Cee meet once before he ships off. He has doubts about their ability to continue any sort of relationship after what's happened, as well as the 3-year separation they've had -- she wasn't allowed to visit him in prison. She, on the other hand, shows no doubts. She loves him, and she will wait for him. Moreover, she will write to him to let him know that Briony is now no longer certain about what she accused him of, and she has started to doubt that what she did was right.

Briony at 18 is much easier to like. She is starting to comprehend what she did to Robbie, and maybe why she did it. She did it out of a young girl's jealousy, perhaps. She didn't know that at the time, but she knows it now.

The film includes some real footage of soldiers returned from the Dunkirk evacuation. They are all smiling for the camera, obviously glad to be alive. To be eating copious amounts of sandwiches. Is Robbie among those who managed to be saved?

Without giving the end of the film away completely, perhaps Atonement is the wrong word to use. Briony lived her life as a writer, with the story presented in the movie being her 21st and final novel. As a 77-year-old Briony (Linda Redgrave) explains to the interviewer, she had every intention of being completely honest, but when she was writing the novel, decided that perhaps a fictional story was preferable to how events actually played out.

To me, this is ultimately disqualifying and demonstrates that nothing can be known about what did or didn't happen. Briony lied about the events that landed Robbie in jail, and now we are expected to believe that what "really happened" is also included in a book where the author admits to including what she would have "liked" to have happened? How can we disguise truth from fiction?

The movie itself is, of course, a completely fictional story, but it feels to me like the screenwriter (and the novelist Ian McEwan, on whose novel the film is based), are being a tad bit too cute. Do we really need a 77-year-old Briony explaining the novel to us and changing the idea of "atonement" into "wish fulfillment"? She claims that her fictionalization was her gift to Robbie and Cecilia, but it feels a lot more like a gift to herself -- a way that she can change the facts to "forgive" herself for something that she lived a lifetime haunted by guilt and regret.

Rating: 4.5/5