Atonement Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

everyone who left a 5 star rating needs to atone for their sins!

Absolutely the most boring film ever! I'm a literary student and usually love adaptations but this film is so slow moving. Dont go there!

Atonement - What a mixed review, and how diverse - will I confuse you further?

My summary: Period Drama of sorts, but Dickens it is NOT. Slow, but good atmospheric start, bad middle (see below), and the end - first unreal, then real, then unreal and then jumping back and forward - was there an end at all? No hankies needed, and no moral, religious or political plot - so no meaning, or even mental thought required.

Review: I will try and not give too much away, lest I spoil it for you. The camerawork is not (shaky - as if hand held) as suggested by some reviews, and the acting not wooden (as suggested by others), but both in keeping with the period and the less than challenging script. The story is slow throughout - be warned. The start is interesting, as it sets the scene, but the middle - oh, what a waste; and the end, how bizarre. The jumping back and forward in time middle part (as at the end also) will confuse or turn some off, and is the least appealing (but most expensive and least realistic) part of this film; the middle war sequences also have no real cohesion and in my mind could have been cut altogether without affecting the film, which would have then been less tedious. If the producer attempted to climb the lofty heights of good cinematography, he failed, resoundingly. The middle undermines the story and destroys completely the pace of what could have been a passable - it was never going to be good (by any standard) - story of a childhood crush scorned; her revenge; the dire impact of that revenge on the lives of the two central lovers, then regret - hence ‘Atonement’ - supposedly autobiographical by the child turned adult author and interviewee/narrator. Make of it what you will - poor or brilliant? I think the former - and cannot understand all the hype! Should it have been made - probably not! If you have a limited DVD rental, there are better and more rewarding films.