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Name of the movie you are reviewing: Atonement (2007)
A romantic drama war film, directed by Joe Wright and based on Ian McEwan's book. I know it sounds terribly British, but trust me it's good. It has James McAvoy and Kiera Knightley, doesn't it?
Review:
Warning: Spoilers, and a lot of rambling. Requires having watched the film to make this review make sense haha
I’ve heard of this movie quite a lot before I’ve been beaten down to finally watch it. It seems like that’s a theme with me, anyways. I’ve seen a screencap of Kiera Knightley in that memorable wet underthings scene when I was younger (and hesitantly dragged my eyes away, because that was only polite, wasn’t it?) I had thought it was a pretty odd title. Like what could they possibly atone for…
Now I became a James McAvoy fan just a few years ago. You can thank X-Men for that, and my weakness for pretty-eyed boys. Apparently, Atonement was a must-see if you were a McAvoy fan. But I’ve also been warned that it was too painful. Too painful even for the fans. I still have my self-preservation, so I avoided it for a long time. I mean, what was I going to miss if I don’t watch a movie set in old times, right? Who knows if it would bore me?
Now if you knew me, like really knew me… I have a particular love for pretty pictures. I mean that’s no special trait, but I really have a great appreciation for aesthetics. I’ve been told I have a good eye and taste, but uh *cough* yeah. After seeing countless screencaps and gifsets of this effing film, I was like, damn, I’m gonna do it. That shot of James McAvoy’s hand calming the water in the fountain haunted me. I wanted to earn the right to use that picture, and for me to do so I must watch the film. I must experience the pain. I risked my heart because of my love for aesthetics. Kind of a thing an artist would do, thinking about it now. (Not that I’m that much of an artist.)
Alright I’ve rambled enough about introductions. I just feel it’s important to know how you got to watch something amazing, because it’s like reminiscing how you met your girlfriend or your first love. And this film is pretty special. God, I loved it so much I nearly named myself after Robbie, James McAvoy’s character in the film. It seems I just feel so much kinship with tortured boys who love so much, ah whatever that’s my personal problem.
“Dearest Cecilia, You’d be forgiven for thinking me mad, the way I acted this afternoon. The truth is I feel rather lightheaded and foolish in your presence, Cee, and I don’t think I can blame the heat.” The way they already established this romance so early in the film in such simplicity but earnestness, the way I smiled because yes, that’s me too. I also feel foolish and lightheaded in the presence of the one I admire. Simple words that represent me and all the other foolish boys who fall in love.
It was the perfect set-up. Here you have this beautiful rich girl, and the handsome young man who works for her father. It’s my favorite love story. They have secret letters, heated scenes (I mean, come on… The fountain scene is a masterfully crafted piece of art. The coloring, the tension, the words left unsaid.) and most of all, Robbie and Cecilia actually look like they like each other not for just the lust but because they actually interact like close friends. The scene in the dinner party where they sit together but it feels like they know each other already by just through their eyes or their hands, that’s some easy love for me. Perfect in its effortlessness.
It’s a torture watching it all spiral down. As the movie started and I stared at Saoirse Ronan’s young face, I thought, this girl is going to ruin my life. It’s the terror, you see, that knowing you will be stabbed at some point in your life and by whom, but you’re helpless and you can’t do anything to stop it. Briony COULD have just minded her business, but dear God, we find out she doesn’t, and she did all that because she was a jealous child who actually had a crush on Robbie. How sick is that, my love. I mean I understand, to desire so much that you would want to ruin them, but think of the consequences! Would you want your irrationality to ruin someone’s life forever?
To think that Robbie had been good to her. To think that Robbie cared for her, and that she was supremely above him in status and she used that to implicate him. Good god, the rage I feel. She may have been just a child but that is not enough reason not to absolve someone. We were thinking beings even as young as we were, and we already had a beating heart. If she had enough heart to love Robbie in some level that she did, she should have had enough heart to spare him from a life of misery.
But he was sent into a life of misery. And not only him but Cecilia. Briony when she grew up was timid, and she definitely looked like she was atoning, but that served to annoy me even further. I mean, anyone can understand. She wrote all these scenes where Cecilia and Robbie did meet, that they had their time together in love like they should’ve had, that Robbie had the chance to yell at Briony and berate her viciously for what she had done. But you know what? None of that happened. There wasn’t a poetic justice that was served to her. Robbie and Cecilia did not get the house by the beach with the white picket fences, not in real life by the least. Why can Briony get to imagine an afterlife where they did these things, to offer her some peace? What if there wasn’t an afterlife, Briony?
This does not have a good ending, this review. But then, so did Cecilia and Robbie. Cecilia dying in a tunnel filled with water, and Robbie dying with his eyes open because he was hungry and tired and God knows what kind of war virus got in his veins. God that ruined me. Why. Why. But as I said, some art is worth the pain, and if I got to experience the hurt just so I could see some beauty (and not just physical), well that was worth the time. It didn’t stop me from buying the book, did it? I obviously liked the film enough.
P.S., I wanted to punch Benedict Cumberbatch’s face in the film. Jesus, he should’ve been the one to have died in the place of Robbie. Ugh, I despise him! The poor girl he abused
Would you recommend this to other users? Oh, definitely. If you feel like getting your heart broken, or just want to see an amazingly done film, then watch Atonement. It is worth the hype it has gotten.
Rating(1-5):
A romantic drama war film, directed by Joe Wright and based on Ian McEwan's book. I know it sounds terribly British, but trust me it's good. It has James McAvoy and Kiera Knightley, doesn't it?
Review:
Warning: Spoilers, and a lot of rambling. Requires having watched the film to make this review make sense haha
I’ve heard of this movie quite a lot before I’ve been beaten down to finally watch it. It seems like that’s a theme with me, anyways. I’ve seen a screencap of Kiera Knightley in that memorable wet underthings scene when I was younger (and hesitantly dragged my eyes away, because that was only polite, wasn’t it?) I had thought it was a pretty odd title. Like what could they possibly atone for…
Now I became a James McAvoy fan just a few years ago. You can thank X-Men for that, and my weakness for pretty-eyed boys. Apparently, Atonement was a must-see if you were a McAvoy fan. But I’ve also been warned that it was too painful. Too painful even for the fans. I still have my self-preservation, so I avoided it for a long time. I mean, what was I going to miss if I don’t watch a movie set in old times, right? Who knows if it would bore me?
Now if you knew me, like really knew me… I have a particular love for pretty pictures. I mean that’s no special trait, but I really have a great appreciation for aesthetics. I’ve been told I have a good eye and taste, but uh *cough* yeah. After seeing countless screencaps and gifsets of this effing film, I was like, damn, I’m gonna do it. That shot of James McAvoy’s hand calming the water in the fountain haunted me. I wanted to earn the right to use that picture, and for me to do so I must watch the film. I must experience the pain. I risked my heart because of my love for aesthetics. Kind of a thing an artist would do, thinking about it now. (Not that I’m that much of an artist.)
Alright I’ve rambled enough about introductions. I just feel it’s important to know how you got to watch something amazing, because it’s like reminiscing how you met your girlfriend or your first love. And this film is pretty special. God, I loved it so much I nearly named myself after Robbie, James McAvoy’s character in the film. It seems I just feel so much kinship with tortured boys who love so much, ah whatever that’s my personal problem.
“Dearest Cecilia, You’d be forgiven for thinking me mad, the way I acted this afternoon. The truth is I feel rather lightheaded and foolish in your presence, Cee, and I don’t think I can blame the heat.” The way they already established this romance so early in the film in such simplicity but earnestness, the way I smiled because yes, that’s me too. I also feel foolish and lightheaded in the presence of the one I admire. Simple words that represent me and all the other foolish boys who fall in love.
It was the perfect set-up. Here you have this beautiful rich girl, and the handsome young man who works for her father. It’s my favorite love story. They have secret letters, heated scenes (I mean, come on… The fountain scene is a masterfully crafted piece of art. The coloring, the tension, the words left unsaid.) and most of all, Robbie and Cecilia actually look like they like each other not for just the lust but because they actually interact like close friends. The scene in the dinner party where they sit together but it feels like they know each other already by just through their eyes or their hands, that’s some easy love for me. Perfect in its effortlessness.
It’s a torture watching it all spiral down. As the movie started and I stared at Saoirse Ronan’s young face, I thought, this girl is going to ruin my life. It’s the terror, you see, that knowing you will be stabbed at some point in your life and by whom, but you’re helpless and you can’t do anything to stop it. Briony COULD have just minded her business, but dear God, we find out she doesn’t, and she did all that because she was a jealous child who actually had a crush on Robbie. How sick is that, my love. I mean I understand, to desire so much that you would want to ruin them, but think of the consequences! Would you want your irrationality to ruin someone’s life forever?
To think that Robbie had been good to her. To think that Robbie cared for her, and that she was supremely above him in status and she used that to implicate him. Good god, the rage I feel. She may have been just a child but that is not enough reason not to absolve someone. We were thinking beings even as young as we were, and we already had a beating heart. If she had enough heart to love Robbie in some level that she did, she should have had enough heart to spare him from a life of misery.
But he was sent into a life of misery. And not only him but Cecilia. Briony when she grew up was timid, and she definitely looked like she was atoning, but that served to annoy me even further. I mean, anyone can understand. She wrote all these scenes where Cecilia and Robbie did meet, that they had their time together in love like they should’ve had, that Robbie had the chance to yell at Briony and berate her viciously for what she had done. But you know what? None of that happened. There wasn’t a poetic justice that was served to her. Robbie and Cecilia did not get the house by the beach with the white picket fences, not in real life by the least. Why can Briony get to imagine an afterlife where they did these things, to offer her some peace? What if there wasn’t an afterlife, Briony?
This does not have a good ending, this review. But then, so did Cecilia and Robbie. Cecilia dying in a tunnel filled with water, and Robbie dying with his eyes open because he was hungry and tired and God knows what kind of war virus got in his veins. God that ruined me. Why. Why. But as I said, some art is worth the pain, and if I got to experience the hurt just so I could see some beauty (and not just physical), well that was worth the time. It didn’t stop me from buying the book, did it? I obviously liked the film enough.
P.S., I wanted to punch Benedict Cumberbatch’s face in the film. Jesus, he should’ve been the one to have died in the place of Robbie. Ugh, I despise him! The poor girl he abused
Would you recommend this to other users? Oh, definitely. If you feel like getting your heart broken, or just want to see an amazingly done film, then watch Atonement. It is worth the hype it has gotten.
Rating(1-5):
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