Atonement

I know it's a bit late in the day, but seeing as the film just climbed up a place in the box office back to Number 2, I thought I'd put up my thoughts. Not a review in the strictest sense, but my various views of it nonetheless! (Spoilers)

The book of Atonment had me very emotionally involved almost all the way through, the film less so, but it was still devastating and emotional in many places. Any more distressing and I don't know if I could have handled it, so probably best. It was a lean adaptation and the relatively smaller budget showed in the ware scenes - no big German bombers, just their reflection in a stream. The Dunkirk setpiece was devastating however. It was so horrific, and that's only the filmic representation. The reality must have been... like hell on earth.

James McAvoy is amazing. He was the main man of the film for me; brilliant throughout. So intense, so able to convey emotion honestly. It feels real when he does it. For the first time, I can honestly say, Keira Knightley was good. There were a few moments when I felt her slipping into bad habits, the beginning of a pout, or posturing, but she was pulled back on the brink. She also wasn't in a lot of it, so that maybe helped. That absence however, and Robbie's too once it all switched to Briony at 18, made me feel... like I was yearning for an identifiable lead. Cee and Robbie are the romantic leads, but it's Briony's actions and her point of view for a large portion of the film. In any case, as a viewer, I got very upset. Upset beacue I was cheated out of a happy ending, for such horrible things happening to good people, for the waste, death and sacrifice of war. Why can't there be peace?