Atonement: DVD, HD DVD Review (2008)

Joe Wright's “Atonement” has everything you could wish for in a period drama--beautiful cinematography, set design and costumes; exotic locales; and a story designed to rip out your heart and crush it when a rushed, heated romance between two young lovers is poisoned by the lies and deceit of another.

Keira Knightley is Cecilia Tallis, a privileged, brittle beauty who isn't especially likable, which is a problem since the movie eventually asks us to feel something profound for her. Looking bored and bothered in 1935 England, Cecilia has issues with Robbie (James McAvoy), who was put through Cambridge with Tallis money and who now is treated as something of a third-wheel member of the family.

The youngest member of the household is spooky Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a wide-eyed lass with a mean mouth and a tight-fisted gate who fancies herself as something of a writer.

She favors fiction, which is key, and she also has a crush on Robbie, which is critical to why she does all that she does in a key plot element not to be revealed here.

"Atonement" isn't a boring movie--there's lots of lovely furniture to look at here, nevermind the appealing vision of its romantic leads--but it isn't a very gripping movie, either, because Cecilia and Robbie aren't allowed to create a fierce, believable bond onscreen before they're torn apart.

The trouble with the film is that you're always aware that you're watching a movie. There's no sinking into "Atonement," no losing yourself to it, no moment when the screen fades away and the story and the characters come to the fore to overcome you.

This is a film you watch from the sidelines, thinking how pretty Knightley looks in this gown, that bathing suit, and how the lighting in a key scene in which Cecilia and Robbie have sex against a wall of books is more interesting than the scene itself.

Read the full, unedited version of the review here.

Rated R. Grade: C+

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