Average Rating:

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Atonement [HD DVD] [2007]

starring: Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, James McAvoy, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave
directed by: Joe Wright

March 10, 2008
I think you have to look past the hype and see the film for itself. In that regard, James MacAvoy was as usual superb, and brought his character (Robbie) to life. Saoirse Ronan as the young(est) version of Briony, showed us all of the intensity of a 13-year-old on the cusp of adolescence. Her motivation is clear - she has strong feelings for Robbie, feelings which she cannot express, does not know how to express, but somehow must do; and then she catches her sister and Robbie together, intimately, and it is the resulting bottled-up rage that destroys all three of them.

And what of Keira Knightely? I thought she was convincing. In the first part of the film her dialog is mainly cliches, but that would have been the way her character ... Read More: