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Hollywood Hues Joe Wright’s Atonement is one of the best films in recent times, says
Ervell E. Menezes
JOE Wright’s Atonement is a gripping, intensely moving human drama of love and guilt told against the backdrop of the English countryside and amid an upper class, aristocratic English family in the best ambience of Jane Austen’s novels. Fittingly, Wright also made Pride and Prejudice in which lead actress Keira Knightley figured. It all begins with a lie by little Brioney Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) who tells about her elder sister Cecilia’s (Keira Knightly) "terrible act" with her lover Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the son of their housekeeper, who was sent to Cambridge by her parents to get a degree. An earlier crush on Robbie possibly led to the shady incident in which Robbie paid a penalty for a crime he did not commit simply because the precocious and revengeful gave false evidence of a molestation near their house, leading to him serving years in prison. Now Brioney (also played by Ramola Garrea after 18 and by Vanessa Redgrave in her seventies) is a budding writer, and after years have gone by, realises her guilt and wants to make amends. But, it could be too late. Brioney goes on to become a famous novelist who has 21 novels to her credit and this story is her last one. All this is fetchingly narrated by director Joe Wright with the judicious use of going back and forth in time and capturing the essence of British high society and how an alliance with the housekeeper’s son has far-reaching repercussions. Aided by an imaginative screenplay by Christhoper Hampton, Atonement is caressingly shot by cameraman Ian McEwan. The affair between
Robbie and Cecilia is handled most sensitively as the action shifts to
World War II and the battlefields of Dunkirk. The transition from the
placid countryside and the war-ravaged English dreary sights,
including London during the blitz, is brought out starkly and has to
be seen to be believed. It is here that Wright is, at his best,
putting every little detail in place. Also, one also cannot find fault
with the sensitive handling of the love story. Keira Knightley is just
excellent and goes through a whole gamut of emotions, from delight to
harrowing sadness showing that today she is in the top bracket,
unhesitatingly. She is well supported by James McAvoy as the
housekeeper’s son. Atonement is really one of the best films
of the recent times and has an all-round appeal because it is above
life and love and guilt and told most naturally.
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