Atonement

"Atonement" was a severe disappointment. Yes, the performances are excellent and the scenes are impressively laid out. Certainly worthy of some award acknowledgment. Still, I found this to be an utterly boring and overrated experience.

Thirteen-year old Briony (Saoirse Ronan) spends her hot summer days running around the gardens of her lush English estate writing plays. Clearly bored, she uses her imagination to try to make her life more interesting. She also has a crush on Robbie (James McAvoy) the son of one of their servants who is hoping to be a doctor. Robbie, being much older than Briony, doesn't pay attention to the young girl's flirtation, but instead has eyes for her sister Cecillia (Keira Knightley).

Ready to confess his love, Robbie writes a letter to Cecillia and asks Briony to deliver it. Unfortunately, it's the explicit first draft of the letter rather than the intended one. As if that wasn't enough to confuse and irritate Briony, she then walks in on the two in a passionate clutch. Misunderstanding and confusion ensue, to the extreme point where Robbie is arrested for a crime he did not commit, but that Briony accuses him of. Four years later he is fighting in the war, Briony is a nurse, and Cecillia and Robbie continue to long for each other.

Got all of that? My issues here are many. The first 30 minutes were as dull as a British movie can be, older Briony is much less interesting than younger version, and we're suppose to hope during the remainder of the movie that, because of five minutes in the library, Robbie and Cecillia will be reunited to share their love. In the end, and I don't want to spoil anything here, I felt completely cheated. Again, the performances are solid, but I would never consider this to be one of the best movies of the year. Last week I said I would give this a B-. The more I think about it, the less I like it. Now I give it a C. Yes, I can do that.

"Atonement" is rated R with a running time of 123 minutes.