I really don't know what to say.I was looking forward to seeing this movie more than any other this awards season. I'm a sucker for a period epic. And James McEvoy is one of my all-time favorite actors. I think he's woefully underrated and brilliantly talented. I actually like Keira Knightley, as well. Combine those things with period costumes, fabulous art direction, the great buzz it's gotten and the overall experience of seeing it on the big screen and you'd think I'd be swooning.
In fact, Atonement is simply...ok.
It's beautifully shot.
The acting is great.
The score is wonderful...the use of the typewriter as a musical instrument is very cool.
I didn't really dislike any specific aspect of the film. All the pieces were perfect (or close to it). I just felt an overwhelming sense of "bleh" during and since my viewing of it.
I'll not give away any important plot points, but I'm gonna give a general overview. The first third of the film is very intimate. It takes place in one location and has a set number of characters. Then, through plot circumstances, McEvoy and Knightley (our romatic leads) are separated. The film then becomes a broad-sweeping story ignoring all but two (McEvoy & Knightley, again) of the characters we previously met. This middle third of the movie is what bugged me most, I think. The viewer has to "sit through" this section because the director wants you to somehow empathize with our leads - he wants you to feel their separation and longing. But I didn't. I was simply aggravated.
Suddenly, the final third brings back some of the characters from the first third...some of whom are played by different actors as they have aged from children to adults in that time. And the end of the film jumps to present-day and then a "fantasy sequence" of sorts. All the while, we're also getting certain scenes shown to us repeatedly from different characters' points of view, so you often wondered where you were, chronologically.
Don't get me wrong - the screenplay is actually pretty clever. I just never felt emotionally vested in any character in this film. Why? Here's an example: Yes, the several-minute-long-tracking-shot on the beach is impressive. But, it too took me out of the emotional track of the film...I kept thinking about how cool the shot was. I was constantly asking questions about the filmmaking as opposed to the film. And that's a problem.
Didn't love it, didn't hate it. It's just "ok."
1 comment:
I am mostly in agreement with Smug Doug on Atonement, however my feelings of dislike of this film were much stronger than his.
First I must say I am a big fan of Ms. Kiera and James McAvoy, and I thought for the first 1/3 to 1/2 of this film that I might be experiencing a masterpiece in film making. I agree with Smug Doug - I thought it was beautiful, intimate, georgeous (Kiera's green silk gown was TO DIE FOR), and well written. The art direction was almost perfection, and I felt I was being introduced to characters who would take me on a waonderful journey......then the film turned into "All Quiet On The Western Front," and we spend the middle third of the film following McAvoy's character around for a purpose that was unclear to me. The point of the desperation of his life and the horror of his betrayal was made, and made, and made, and made.
And don't even get me started on "Briney"(sp?). That's a whole 'notha post.
Without giving too much away to anyone who has not seen this film, there occurs something akin to a Bobby Ewing moment at the end of the "Who Shot JR" mystery on "Dallas." I found I was quite angry (I had just sat through all of his wandering through continuous war shots for no discernable purpose)to the point where I felt like yelling juvenile things at the screen like "you SUCK!" and "Are you KIDDING me?!?!" Ugh. A terribly disappointing evening - I actually apologized to my husband for making him sit through this pretentious, self-indulgent silliness. "The English Patient" it ain't - which it tries to compare itself to in the promotional ads.
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