Atonement

Went to the cinema to see Atonement, which was very true to the book – indeed, perhaps more enjoyable, for where the book became dry and protracted with Briony’s necessarily grim life as a nurse and Robbie’s gruelling experiences in France, the film balances the dark subject matter with beautiful – if horrific – imagery and a brisker pace that may detract a little from the impression of long sufferings, allows for a more agreeable pace: it is an exchange, emphatic realism for agreeable brevity, perhaps dragging the picture towards middlebrow, but then, while this is probably McEwan’s most memorable concept and most ambitious story, it is also likely his most melodramatic piece, and not what one would call highbrow. I say that not at all as something that ought to detract from the impression the book gives.

The direction was excellent – camera movements were graceful and showed us by turns extravagant but retrained English wealth and the virtues and flaws of a privileged British child, the horrors of war in all their grand, terrifying scope as well as the intimate whispers between comrades, the stifling closeness of the flats of the poor and that of a military hospital run with meaningless precision, and best of all, the intricacies of thoughts and emotions, pleasant and unpleasant, funny and moving. The actors are perfectly cast and uniformly perform extremely well. All the characters look beautiful on the screen, from ethereally pretty Keira Knightley to the plain-faced Briony. The only irritating element was the use of the typewriter to make music, a twee concept that sounded messy and distracting. All in all, an excellent film of a clever, intelligent book.