Movie Review: Atonement, but What Are We Being Redeemed For? Human Frailty?

Atonement is a mystery that unfolds first in a child's mind and as the story progresses the audience learns the truth about what actually occurred all those years ago. 

What would happen if you had a chance to right a mistake? Would you do it as soon as you discovered your error? Or, would you wait decades after everyone is dead to confess? 

These questions are what people should ask themselves.

*****

Atonement

 

When Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), thirteen-years-old and an aspiring writer, sees her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) at the fountain in front of the family estate, she misinterprets what is happening, thus setting into motion a series of misunderstandings and a childish pique that will have lasting repercussions for all of them. Robbie is the son of a family servant toward whom the family has always been kind. They paid for his time at Cambridge and now he plans on going to medical school. After the fountain incident, Briony reads a letter intended for Cecilia and concludes that Robbie is a deviant. When her cousin Lola (Juno Temple) is raped, she tells the Police that it was Robbie she saw committing the deed.

IMDB

*****Spoiler Time*****  

The Breakdown

When a series of misinterpretations of a young girl puts her sister's love for a servant's son in jeopardy, what will she do to right a wrong she caused?

Briony Tallis, played by Saoirse Ronan, is a brat of a child who mistakes adult behaviors as ones of depravity instead of what actually happened. She goes on to accuse Robbie of rape, when the real rapist is a friend of the family.

Cecelia Tallis, played by Keira Knightley, is in love with Robbie Turner. Her world is destroyed when her sister, Briony, lies about Robbie. Her family disintegrates because of that lie.

Robbie Turner, played by James McAvoy, is a servant's son and accused of raping a child that he did not. This lie by Briony led him to be convicted and later conscripted into the British military during World War II. Because the young Briony mistook his infatuation and love for her sister out of context.

Atonement is the search for redemption. After 21 novels, the writer, Briony Tallis, is decades older and has now brain disease, she writes her last novel giving her sister and lover the life they both deserved: a long and happy love affair. In all those years, Briony had never forgiven herself for being a headstrong and envious child, but she did nothing to correct her error when it mattered the most: when both Robbie and Cecilia were still alive.

This film has been rated: 7.8/10 Stars on IMDB.

*****

The Review

Older Briony: So, my sister and Robbie were never able to have the time together they both so longed for... and deserved. Which ever since I've... ever since I've always felt I prevented. But what sense of hope or satisfaction could a reader derive from an ending like that? So in the book, I wanted to give Robbie and Cecilia what they lost out on in life. I'd like to think this isn't weakness or... evasion... but a final act of kindness. I gave them their happiness.

This movie is a beautiful visual masterpiece. There is no argument there. If the audience takes the story on face value, then the narrative is a 10 out of 10 stars all the way. 

Unfortunately, the story has some issues. The conviction of Robbie Turner of rape, would he be eligible for military service, even in wartime? Then there are the timing issues of world events, Dunkirk for instance, that do not match up with what the story shows. There are more discrepancies than these. 

What felt disjointed at the end was an older Briony trying to make up for her lies with rewriting history in a fiction novel that is more autobiographical in nature. Instead of being contrite, she is matter of fact about the whole situation. The interview scene seems off. The editing jumped from here to there. Sometimes the viewer did not know where the story was headed or had been as a matter of the timeline. So when the interview with the older Briony was introduced, the scene felt odd at first.
 

The principle acting is superb. The visual photography and effects are fantastic. The narrative is emotionally gripping. However, the facts of the story, from a historical perspective, and editing appear to need some assistance.

For all the awards this film was nominated for and won, Atonement has its flaws.


Watched free on Prime Video.

*****

The Tally 

My review will be posted on Prime as well as IMDB. 

Prime... 4 out of 5 stars

IMDB... 8 out of 10 stars 

*****

The Writer's Workshop

Movies for Writers: Atonement is a period piece that tells an endearing love story but also a narrative of anger, jealousy, and regret.

*****

For more Movie Reviews, check out Undawnted's Critiques and Reviews page as well as her IMDB and Amazon Prime profiles.

Have a great and wonderful day.

 

Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé

Today marks a significant anniversary for fairy tales:

— perhaps better known as “Les Contes de ma Mère l’Oye,” or “Mother Goose’s Tales,” from the rough print which was inserted as a frontispiece to the first collected edition in 1697. He would not even publish them in his own name. They were declared to be by P. Darmancour, Perrault’s young son. In order that the secret might be well kept, Perrault abandoned his usual publisher, Coignard, and went to Barbin. The stories had previously appeared from time to time, anonymously, in Moetjens’ little magazine the “Recueil,” which was published from The Hague. “La Belle au Bois Dormant” (“Sleeping Beauty”) was the first: and in rapid succession followed “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge” (“Red Riding-Hood”), “Le Maistre Chat, ou le Chat Botté” (“Puss in Boots”), “Les Fées” (“The Fairy”), “Cendrillon, ou la Petite Pantoufle de Verre” (“Cinderella”), “Riquet à la Houppe” (“Riquet of the Tuft”), and “Le Petit Poucet” (“Tom Thumb”).

Thank you, Charles Perrault, for giving the world stories that invoke childhood imagination and creativity. 

In some way, our current storytelling ventures build on his works. 

Source:  Adelaide Books

Tomorrow will be 1m29s shorter

Autumn cometh! 

October is my favorite time of year, so I will post how the days get shorter in anticipation of fall. 

What is disturbing is that stores are already placing their Halloween items out. I do not believe autumn should start at the end of July. I don't believe Xmas shopping should happen until the Monday after Thanksgiving. 

It feels that Americans have gotten away from the joy of the holidays. Halloween is to dress up and spend time with your friends. Children should believe October 31st is a magical night that will give them memories for a lifetime. 

Thanksgiving should be a time of celebration and giving thanks. Gratitude for all the sacrifices people have made to make America great, while not forgetting the terrible things that befell the First Nations who are now on reservations. 

Christmas and other end of year holidays should not come at the expense of other holidays or traditions. I mean, really, do we need Black Friday? 

No, course we do not. 

What we need are a nation of people who care and have moral/ethical behavior. A 99c flat screen tv is not worth the time a father or mother has to be at work to serve you and be away from their kids during the Thanksgiving holiday. 

We should be paying a fair wage so no one has to work on the holidays. Or, receive food stamps. Or, live out of their vehicle., 

While I love October, Halloween, the holidays make me think about how I conduct myself around the holiday season.

What will you do to make the season brighter for someone else? 

An Empty Nest

In this lifetime, there was no children for me and with this illness, there will not be any.

So when I take care of the creatures around me and do a good job, they leave. That was true for today. The baby hummingbirds did not return to their nest this evening.

Sad for me. Wonderful for them.

I hope in the coming days or years, they stop by and let me know how they are doing. Such sweet sorrow. Maybe next year, one will nest again where I can watch over them.

Or, maybe I should say: watch over me.

For now there is an empty nest in my gazebo planter, but never empty in my heart.