My thoughts on ‘Atonement’

 My thoughts on ‘Atonement’

Adapted from Ian McEwan’s best-seller of the same name, Atonement opens with the clicking staccato of Briony’s typewriter. The 13-year-old is putting a final touch to her first play that is to be performed by her and the cousins that evening for some guests.

On this languid summer afternoon in 1935, the scorching heat is challenging everyone’s demure mannerisms and sweet dispositions in the sprawling English country mansion. Cecilia Tallis, her elder sister, has just graduated from Cambridge along with her housekeeper’s son and friend Robbie Turner. While on an errand, they have a charged encounter by the fountain. Unbeknownst to them, the precocious young girl is watching from one of the Gothic windows.

Briony’s infatuation with drama and Robbie, combined with the wild imagination of a budding writer, leads her to drastically misinterpret everything. This sets a series of unfortunate events in motion: a letter never intended to be delivered, disappearance of the twins and a predator on the loose. She wrongly accuses her sister’s lover of a crime that he did not commit and the real culprit gets off scot-free.

In the second part, we are whisked away to an entirely different world. The hazy, ethereal quality associated is contrasted to the sullen shades of World War II London. Briony, like Cecilia, is working as a nurse instead of going to the university and begins to grasp the all-consuming horrors of the war and her unintentional lie. She desperately wishes to make amends but doesn’t have the guts to face her estranged sister.

Robbie is one of the thousands of soldiers stranded on Dunkirk. An attack by the Nazis has left devastation in its wake. This particular heart-wrenching sequence follows young men with bruises and wounded hopes. Some of them singing the hymn 'Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’ under a gazebo to keep up the spirits while others squandering time away and resorting to booze as they await the unprecedented evacuation. The backdrop of Dario Marianelli's haunting Oscar-winning score seamlessly weaves the tapestry of the despair.

Kiera Knightley and James McEvoy give stellar performances as the star-crossed lovers. Saorise Ronan embodies the young Briony and conveys both the frenzied chaos and firm resoluteness through her eyes. Romola Garai is cast as the 18-year old Briony whereas Vanessa Redgrave humanizes the much older Briony.

 While the cinematography, music, acting and directing by Joe Wright and his team deserves a thunderous applause, I must mention the iconic emerald green dress worn by Cecilia. Digging up the archives of fashion history, you wouldn’t find a similar dress from that era. However, Jacqueline Durran used the artistic liberty to come up with something suited to the character’s taste and symbolise Cecilia’s vulnerability and awakening.

Decades later, Briony is a renowned author. Her last novel is titled ‘Atonement’. Briony being an unreliable narrator, leads us to ask questions like Can she ever atone for what she had done? Was she even to be blamed? There aren’t simple answers to complex questions, especially when seen from different perspectives. A classic case of Rashomon effect, this is a masterpiece not to be missed and a strong IMDb rating of 7.8 testifies my opinion.