Atonement

Atonement is a 2007 film starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightley. It is adapted from Ian McEwan's novel of the same name and directed by Joe Wright. The film was produced by Working Title Films and distributed worldwide by Universal Studios, with the US release through the Focus Features division. It was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on September 7, 2007, and in limited release in North America on 7 December 2007.

As the opening film of the 2007 Venice Film Festival, Atonement made Wright at the age of 35 the youngest director ever to open this prestigious festival. The film also opened the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival.


Plot

Atonement frequently breaks chronological order, showing the same scene twice, once from Briony's perspective, once from the adult characters', as the plot hinges around Briony's naive misinterpretation of what she sees. Each time break is made clear either by explicit captions, or by the emphasized manipulation of an obvious scene element (i.e. the movement of an object, a character being soaking wet).

Briony Tallis, turning 13, and her adult older sister Cecilia are two of the three children of a well-to-do English family. Robbie, approximately Cecilia's age, is the servants' son who is close to the family. He was college educated at the master's expense, and is apparently headed to medical school by the same financing. Tallis cousins Lola Quincey, a few years older than Briony, and her younger twin brothers are visiting the Tallis family. The audience learns that the Quincey parents are involved in a messy divorce. Paul Marshall is a visiting friend of the girls' brother, Leon; Marshall owns a chocolate factory that is acquiring a contract to produce chocolate bars for army rations. They all gather in the Tallis home to celebrate Briony's birthday.

Briony is shown to be a very literate, writing-obsessed child. She sees part of an altercation between Cecilia and Robbie, which in her eyes appeared to be hostile, but which the audience then sees, with the scene replayed from Cecilia's perspective, exhibited sexual tension. Robbie tries to type an apology for the incident, but is continually frustrated with insufficiently eloquent drafts. He types one extremely lewd version as stress relief, then hand writes a sincere, heartfelt apology. He dresses for the formal dinner, and, on the way over, gives the letter to Briony to deliver to Cecilia. Only too late, he realizes that the sincere version is sitting on his desk, and the lewd version is in the envelope. Briony reads the letter, and is immediately horrified, and shares her disgust with Lola, who was already extremely upset for reasons that are not revealed. Lola has a severe bruise on her forearm that she vaguely attributes to her brothers. Briony gives Cecilia the letter, who is concerned that Briony will reveal its erotic contents to the assembling family.

That evening, Briony wanders into the library, hearing vague movement, and finds Robbie aggressively embracing Cecilia, in an obviously sexual position against a bookcase which she incorrectly interprets as an attack by Robbie. The audience then sees the scene replayed from Robbie and Cecilia's perspective, as he apologizes to Cecilia for sending the wrong copy of the letter. The two reveal their feelings for one another, kiss, and begin to make love in the position Briony finds them. They compose themselves and leave without speaking to Briony. At dinner that evening, Briony becomes verbally aggressive with Robbie, but before she can accuse him of anything, the adults notice that the twins have not shown up. Searching for them, on their bed is discovered a note saying that they're running away to go home. The adults break up to search for the twins, but Briony sets out on her own to find them. She stumbles upon a tuxedoed man who appears to be raping Lola. She immediately accuses Robbie to the adults, and the police. When Robbie later returns, with the twins safely in tow, he is arrested and jailed.